Can we make blood transfusions safer by testing for proteins linked to strokes and Alzheimer’s?
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2026/aug/can-we-make-blood-transfusions-safer-testing-proteins-linked-strokes-and-alzheimersOpen linkView original on lemmy.world
8 replies
Imagine you are a giving blood and this is how you find out you'll be living with Alzheimer's someday.
The possibility that stroke and Alzheimer's dementia might be transmissible is very bad news and has so many ramifications. People with Alzheimer's dementia will commonly have a deterioration in physical health, with injury and things like pressure sores making them bleed more.
They already have it, so getting it via transfusion presumably wouldn't change much.
I doubt many seniors with dementia donate blood...
We don't know the causality so its better to play it safe. What if pre-dementia or pre-alzheimers donors have the protien and it really is transmissible? For something as lethal as either of those diseases you would err on the side of caution and refuse donated blood with those proteins.
A massive contributor to why HIV/AIDS is so bad in Africa is becausecof pooled blood products that were contaminated with HIV from donors even after we knew it was transmissible by blood... those companies packaged and sold or donated those products to Africa seeding the current crisis.
I completely agree with what you say. That's not what the comment I replied to talks about, though. They're talking about patients with dementia bad enough to hurt themselves. I don't think that in such case the protein being present in the transfusion matters much anymore.
Oh whoops yeah I misread that
I was thinking more of the carers, nurses and family members of those suffering from the disease. Not only does it take everything from them that was themselves but now the prospect they might transmit it to those that care for them too.
I don't know. Why are you asking me?