U.S. Recommends Ban of ME/CFS blood

On June 18th, 2010, the  AABB Interorganizational Task Force on Xenotropic Murine Leukemia Virus-Related Virus released a bulletin recommending that ME/CFS patients should be actively discouraged from donating blood or blood components until further definitive data are available.  By doing this, America joins Canada, New Zealand and Autralia in recomending that ME/CFS patients refrain for donating blood products.

The AABB Task Force has members from nearly 2,000 institutions from over 80 countries and includes several American agencies, such as the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health. 

We, the Think Tank panel of ESME, applaud the actions of the task force and again call for a similar ban to be issued in all European countries. Until the connection between XMRV and ME/CFS is fully understood, it is strongly advisable to prohibit donations of blood and blood components from these patients and irresponsible to act otherwise.

We encourage you to contact your government officials and ask them to ban ME/CFS patients from donating blood.

See more: http://www.aabb.org/pressroom/Pages/cfsrecommendation.aspx

ESME  Scientific Think Tank Panel Doctors:

 Prof. Dr. Med. Kenny De Meirleir

Prof. Dr. Bodil Norrild

PD Dr. Liv Bode

Prof. Dr. Hanns Ludwig

Prof. Dr. Med. Umberto Tirelli 

Prof. Dr. Med. Ola Didrik Saugstad

 Dr. Med. Mette Johnsgaard

Prof. Dr. Med. Mária J. Molnár