4 ms·
What's the connection between cannibals in New Guinea and European blood/marrow donors?
by CamperBob 15y ago
What's the connection between cannibals in New Guinea and European blood/marrow donors?
- hartror 15y agoNot sure how I can make it clearer but I will try. Because Europeans have an increased risk* of having the prion disease BSE they aren't ever allowed to donate. The reasons for this are a similar prion disease in New Guinea has been shown to have a very long asymptomatic period measured in decades. And since there is no screening for prions and no one is sure how long prion diseases remain asymptomatic all Europeans are not allowed to give blood/marrow/organs. * How much so is of course debatable.
- CamperBob 15y agoI guess I woke up on the wrong side of the rabbit hole. When I went to bed, Papua New Guinea was about nine thousand miles from Brussels.
- dlikhten 15y agoFunny thing here. The probability of Prion Disease is very small. VERY small. Statistically speaking, the barring of blood donation costs us significantly more lives than the contamination possibility. Yes its unfortunate some people will develop prion disease, but... you get it.