Report of the Working Group 'Overall Blood Supply Strategy with Regard to Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD)' Statement on the Development and Implementation of Test Systems Suitable for the Screening of Blood Donors for vCJD - Dated September 17,2008'

摘要

The Working Group 'Overall Blood Supply Strategy with Regard to Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD)' was formed in 2001 by request of the German Federal Ministry of Health in a letter dated January 26, 2001, consisting of staffs from the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut, the Robert Koch-Institut and the Federal Ministry of Health as well as external experts. On August 17, 2001 the report prepared by this Working Group was submitted to the Ministry of Health and published after a discussion in the National Advisory Committee 'Blood' (Arbeitskreis Blut) as a brochure and online [1]. After reports were published in the UK in 2004 on the transmission of the vCJD pathogen by blood transfusion, the Working Group became active again, preparing an update of the report on April 13, 2004 which was published in scientific journals [2, 3]. One of the conclusions of this report was: 'The secondary route of infection by blood could largely be stopped as soon as a suitable screening test becomes available. No such test is currently available nor is its availability foreseeable. Providing resources for developing suitable test methods should therefore be treated with high priority.' Early in 2008 the Working Group has started meeting again with slightly different members in order to assess progress made in the field of diagnostics, particularly with regard to the development of screening assays for blood donations. Another task has been to critically evaluate the requirements regarding an implementation of such test assays in the present basic framework.