Alfonso Torres, a USDA deputy administrator, told the panel that the USDA monitors animals imported before the ban went into effect for signs of the disease. And Canada and Mexico have implemented safeguards to ensure that infected animals do not cross their borders. Precautions have also been taken to prevent the transmission of vCJD via blood donations from apparently healthy individuals who may be incubating the disease. Anyone who has lived in or visited the United Kingdom for a cumulative period of six months or more during 1980 to 1996 is excluded from donating blood. In January, a Food and Drug Administration advisory committee recommended that the ban on blood donations be expanded to include those who lived in France, Ireland or Portugal for a cumulative period of 10 years.
Some people also worry about risks posed by vaccines that include bovine products.
The AMA's Council on Scientific Affairs also assessed the risk in 1999 and concluded that adequate guidelines existed to prevent high-risk bovine materials from contaminating products intended for human use. And although several vaccine manufacturers were recently found to have disregarded the FDA guidelines that materials from countries affected by BSE no longer be used, the FDA advisory committee agreed that the risk of disease transmission via these vaccines, which include polio and diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, is extremely small. But such failures point up the need for the government to regulate rather than issue recommendations, Peter Lurie, MD, MPH, deputy director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group, told the Senate panel. He urged the government to take more forceful action to ensure compliance with existing recommendations and rules. Back to top.