MONTREAL GAZETTE: Saudi Arabia has been added to the list of countries whose one-time residents are not allowed to donate blood in Canada.
Canadian Blood Services said this week it is imposing the ban after learning of a "probable case" of a rare and fatal degenerative brain disease — variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease — in a Canadian resident who lived in Saudi Arabia between 1980 and 1996.
The Canadian blood agency said it's believed the person picked up the disease several years ago, likely from imported British beef. The person was not a blood donor or recipient.
There have also been two other suspected cases of the disease outside Canada linked to current or former residents of Saudi Arabia, the release said. » | © Postmedia News | Wednesday, March 30, 2011
