Man with likely vCJD gave blood

THE man diagnosed with a probable case of variant CJD, gave blood in recent weeks following the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS) appeal for blood.

Results are expected in the coming days on his second biopsy but sources at the Department of Heath admitted yesterday that a positive diagnosis was “highly likely.”

Variant CJD, or the human form of mad cow disease as it is known, is nearly always associated with eating BSE-infected meat with just over 1.5% of British cases linked to blood supply. It is a fatal degenerative brain disease.