VillageLife
Senior Member
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- United Kingdom
It's a good thing those Canadian, Aussies and Kiwi public officials are so out to lunch
A friend of mine got this email from Jerry Holmberg on Friday, He seems to say that Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are not exactly stopping people.....
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We have been very busy since the first report published in Science (Oct
2009). Although there has been confounding studies reported in the US
and Europe, we still are moving ahead to clarify the testing and our
understanding of the risk. Once we have standardized the testing, we
can then proceed with the epidemiology related to transmission.
I am aware of the action of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. From my
understanding, the Canadian action is only for Canadian Blood Service
and not Hema-Quebec. Also all three of these blood collections are not
asking a question, only deferring if the potential donor offers the
information regarding a diagnosis with CFS.
At the present time, neither the FDA nor the blood community have
established a deferral policy relative to XMRV, as you know there is
currently no demonstrated association between the transmission of XMRV
and blood transfusion transmitted disease. However, FDA regulations
require that donors should be in good health. In the absence of FDA
guidance or blood community standard on CFS, the blood collection
center's medical director is responsible for determining whether a donor
with history of CFS is in good health.
We are having the CFSAC on May 10th and I will also be discussing this
with the Medical Advisory Committee of the American Red Cross in May.
Jerry A. Holmberg
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