Mad-cow risk too high to drop Brit donor ban

The Blood Service says its exclusion of British donors must continue because of the risk of mad-cow disease infecting the blood supply.

This is despite the slump of nearly 20 per cent in new donors in the past 12 months.

The service hopes to recruit many more young people and is warning of a crisis if it does not reverse a net annual reduction of about 1000 in the number of active donors.

After reading in the Herald yesterday of the slump, Britons contacted the paper to raise concerns about their exclusion.

The service bans donations from anyone - including New Zealanders on their OE - who lived in Britain, France or Ireland for six months or longer between 1980 and 1996.

The Ministry of Health introduced the policy in 2000 because of the then-theoretical risk of donated blood products transmitting variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD).

The fatal, brain-wasting disease is linked to eating beef from cattle infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also called mad-cow disease. It is thought that infected beef entered the food supply of the three banned countries during the 16-year period.

In 2000, the ministry said there was no evidence vCJD could be transmitted through the blood supply.

But British health authorities have since reported four cases in which recipients of donated blood products have developed symptoms of the disease.

New Zealand resident James Clark, who arrived from Britain in 2000, said yesterday he had donated blood regularly in Britain, but was not permitted to in New Zealand.

"I understand the concerns of CJD from the BSE crisis in the farming industry of the UK in the 80s and 90s. But perhaps a review of this should now occur."

Blood Service marketing manager Paul Hayes, said: "I know it's very frustrating for people, especially expat British when they donated in the UK ... But people who have done their OE since 1996, it doesn't affect them."

He said the cases of vCJD in Britain linked to blood donations showed the exclusion policy was justified. No test was yet available to check donors for v-CJD.

"The people [in Britain] donated blood when they were healthy, then developed the disease. Subsequently people who received those units down the track have developed the disease."

Because the exclusion policy caused the NZ Blood Service to lose 9 per cent of its active donors overnight, it undertook a $1 million advertising campaign in 2000 to recruit replacements.

Mr Hayes said it had succeeded.

OVERSEAS RISK

* Anyone who lived in Britain, France or Ireland for six months or longer between 1980 and 1996 cannot give blood in NZ.
* The policy was introduced in 2000 because of the then-theoretical risk of donated blood transmitting variant-Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
* The disease is linked to eating infected beef.