Blood donations and the mad cow disease

I refer to Alex Aquilina’s letter Blood Donations By People From Britain (December 3).

His last paragraph reads: “Since our knowledge of the agent and its effects is still limited and since no reliable test is yet available to screen for the condition in humans this deferral is still in force. Obviously, this deferral does not hold in the UK”.

I wonder if the National Blood Transfusion Service in Great Britain screens for vCJD (mad cow disease) and if so couldn’t Malta use the same screening procedure?

I believe a number of Maltese nationals visit UK hospitals yearly for surgical interventions and possibly some of them receive UK blood (transfusions). Is it known if any of these Maltese patients have suffered vCJD as a result?

There must be a huge untapped source of willing blood donors among the British population living in Malta.

It’s such a shame that their blood cannot be used, at present. I do hope that screening for vCJD arrives in Malta; if so it would help alleviate the blood shortages these islands suffer from time to time.