Derrygal

I knew about the blood donations - didn't know it affected organ donations. I am an organ donor - I have the little donor icon on my Ohio driver's license. No-one has ever said anything to me about it when I've gone to the DMV to renew it every 4 years.

JAJ

It doesn't ... not everything you read is true.

Derrygal

Okay - thanks for that information!

Pulaski

I think in theory "yes", but there are rules in the UK too, and I don't know if it is still the case, but it used to be that you couldn't have been out of the country (UK) during the prior 14 days.

I have kept an eye on the vCJD death statistics in the UK, as I had always been a sceptic about the connection to BSE, and the need for the mass slaughter of cattle. The fatalities in the UK peaked in 2000 at 28, but had dropped to 20 the following year, and were down to 5 by 2005. Since then there have been 2-5 fatalities per year. I would guess that there are many "extremely rare" diseases that cause more fatalities each year in the UK than vCJD.

DebzinUS

Whether you can donate your organs has nothing to do with the DMV. The DMV simply adds your name to a registry which the organ banks have access to and cross reference when a death occurs. The organ banks make the final decision about the suitability of any eye, tissue, or organ donation.

scrubbedexpat099

Giantaxe

Interestingly, the death rate is now lower in the UK than the US.

Pulaski

However it s only vCJD that has a purported connection to BSE.

Ulsterman in Texas

There is actually two type of CJD according to the CDC one was in the US already and not transmittable by blood, this mainly occurs in older people and then there is variant CJD which is the one that is linked to BSE which is whet the Government are worried in this case, yet all the deaths from CJD either classic or variant are lumped together in this chart.
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/cjd/

Giantaxe

Ah, ok, I didn't realize that CJD (as opposed to vCJD) wasn't transmissible by blood. The current UK death rate of around 2 for vCJD would correspond to around 12 in the US. It would be interesting to know what the US figure is.

Pulaski

Prorated for population? ... The US would be "10" having almost exactly five times the population of the UK.

Giantaxe

ok

Nutek

That's because most of the Beef turned out to be Horse.

civilservant

sir_eccles

I was under the impression that the USDA was pretty much in denial that BSE was an American problem and that it was just other countries. Which strikes me more as protectionism and trade restriction.