Scots doctors pioneer trial to remove 'mad cow' risk from donated blood

THE world's first trial to make blood transfusions free of the human form of 'mad cow disease' has been launched by doctors in Scotland.

Scotland on Sunday can reveal that heart patients in Edinburgh who need blood will be offered donations which have been 'cleaned' in a filter to remove the proteins – or prions – which cause variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

The trials are being undertaken by the Scottish Blood Transfusion service using a filter developed by an international medical supplies firm MacoPharma. The device, which works in a similar way to a coffee filter, removes the prions which cause the disease from donated blood.

It is believed that at least 1,200 Scots have vCJD, a fatal disease that causes brain damage, but do not yet know it.

Tests on the prion filter using animals have so far shown that it prevents the prions being passed on from a blood donor to a recipient.