Translation of "Maladie transmissible par transfusion sanguine " (French → English) :

Major hospitals are reporting to us instances of transmission of infectious diseases through blood transfusions and other blood products.

In order to prevent the transmission of diseases by blood and blood components and to ensure an equivalent level of quality and safety, Directive 2002/98/EC calls for the establishment of specific technical requirements including Community standards and specifications with regard to a quality system for blood establishments.

- incidence and prevalence of transfusion transmissible infectious markers in donors of blood and blood components

In order to safeguard public health and to prevent the transmission of infectious diseases, all precautionary measures during their collection, processing, distribution and use need to be taken making appropriate use of scientific progress in the detection and inactivation and elimination of transfusion transmissible pathogenic agents.

Principal TSE-linked problems tackled under this call : European epidemiology, aimed at ensuring, on a harmonised scale, the identification, comparison and epidemiological surveillance of the TSE diseases, both in humans (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) and in animals (scrapie, etc.); identification of the agent responsible, with a view to determining its principal characteristics and transmission mechanisms, so as to improve the diagnostic tools available; development of diagnostic tools, using techniques such as magnetic resonance, electroencephalography and use of specific antibodies, etc.; risk assessment, notably with regard to r ...[+++]isks associated with the consumption of livestock products and with blood transfusions; therapeutic and preventive strategies, and the examination of the properties of certain families of substances with a view to determining their suitability as therapeutic agents.

BLOOD SAFETY AND SELF-SUFFICIENCY - COUNCIL RESOLUTION "THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, RECALLING the Commission communication of 25 May 1993 on blood self- sufficiency in the European Community and its conclusions of 13 December 1993 on that communication; NOTES with interest the Commission communication of 21 December 1994 on blood safety and self-sufficiency in the European Community; REAFFIRMS the need to achieve self-sufficiency in blood and its derivatives in the Member States and in the Community, in particular through cooperation between Member States, in accordance with the principle of voluntary, unpaid blood donations; EMPHASIZES that the efforts to promote the quality and safety of blood collection help to prevent AIDS and ...[+++] other communicable diseases; RECALLS that Directive 89/381/EEC [1] which extends the scope of Directives 65/65/EEC and 75/319/EEC on proprietary medicinal products by laying down special provisions regarding medicines derived from human blood or plasma applies only to these products; AGREES on the need to define a strategy for reinforcing trust in the safety of the blood-transfusion chain and promoting self-sufficiency in the Community; ACCORDINGLY AGREES that, taking full account of the Council of Europe's discussions, the main activities to be undertaken could include: - the development of policies and agreed procedures in the donor-selection process among blood-collection establishments; - the implementation of efficient, validated and reliable screening tests; - the development and use of quality-assessment criteria and good practices regarding the collection, processing and transfusion of blood and blood products and patient follow-up procedures; - development of a haemovigilance system on the basis of existing networks for the collection of epidemiological data related to the blood- transfusion chain; - encouragement of health professionals to make optimal use of blood and blood products; - the establishment of basi ...