Amit Gupta hasn't found a marrow transplant match; today's your last chance.

Re:Amit Gupta hasn't found a marrow transplant match; today'... by hartror on Friday December 02, 2011 @12:59AM (#3302910)

Not 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.

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Re:Amit Gupta hasn't found a marrow transplant match; today'... by dlikhten on Friday December 02, 2011 @09:42AM (#3304082)

Funny 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.

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Re:Amit Gupta hasn't found a marrow transplant match; today'... by CamperBob on Friday December 02, 2011 @04:30AM (#3303344)

I 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.

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