Tainted blood

last updated 8 January 2015

London

British health officials informed 6,000 people this week that they may have once received blood infected with the human form of mad-cow disease. At least nine blood donors developed Creuzfeld-Jakob disease after giving blood in the 1990s; their blood was mingled with that of hundreds of other donors. Doctors say the dilution of the infected blood makes disease transmission through transfusion very unlikely. But after two people who had received transfusions died recently of the brain-wasting disease, officials decided to inform all patients who might be at risk. Since 1999, Britain has imported much of its blood products from the U.S. and claims that the blood supply is now safe.