Blood transfusions are not responsible for transmitting neurodegenerative diseases, according to a major Scandinavian study.
The findings come from an analysis of the fate of some 2.1 million people who received blood transfusions in Sweden and Denmark.
During the research, more than 40,000 people were identified as having received blood from people who developed a neurodegenerative disease.
The research, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, were "unusually clear," according to the researchers.
The fate of the 40,000 was compared with outcomes for another 1.4 million recipients of blood donations.
The researchers say that both groups had "exactly" the same risk of contracting the neurodegenerative diseases.
Researcher Dr Gustaf Edgren, of the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, said: “The results are unusually clear for such a complicated subject as this. We’ve been working with this question for a long time now and have found no indication that these diseases can be transmitted via transfusions.”
He added: “Blood transfusions are extremely safe in the Western world today, but even so we are working continuously and proactively on identifying any overlooked risks.
“The Swedish-Danish database that we have built up and used in many similar studies clearly demonstrates the value of our vast health registries. This kind of study would have simply been extremely difficult anywhere else in the world.”
Transmission of Neurodegenerative Disorders Through Blood Transfusion A Cohort Study Annals of Internal Medicine 27 June 2016; doi:10.7326/M15-2421
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