Australia Ends Donor Deferral for UK Residency and vCJD Risk

People who spent six months or more in the United Kingdom between 1980 and 1996 are no longer deferred from blood donation in Australia, the Australian Red Cross Lifeblood announced on Monday. Lifeblood introduced the deferral in December 2000 in response to concerns about acquiring human variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD).

Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) approved Lifeblood’s recommendation to remove the deferral following a scientific, epidemiological and clinical assessment of the risk model. The TGA concluded that “the modeled risk is reliable, and by removing the deferral of vCJD, the risk of transfusion transmission of vCJD would remain very low.”

Lifeblood hopes to welcome around 18,000 additional donors who could potentially contribute up to 58,000 additional donations as the change comes into effect.

In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration removed geography-based deferrals for vCJD risk in May 2022. AABB members may access the AABB’s “Compliance Options for Implementation of FDA’s May 2022 CJD/vCJD Guidance” toolkit for additional information.