“Winter is normally harsh, but this one seems particularly harsh – we have 11,000 cancellations a day in NSW alone at the moment,” Mr Stone said.
However, Stone stressed that the rule on British expatriates had not been changed because of supply issues, but because science showed it would be safe.
Plasma and blood bags at the Sydney City Council Blood Donation Centre. Credit: Brook Mitchell
Australia is one of the first countries in the world to change blood donor rules for former British residents, who have been banned from donating blood due to historic outbreaks of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or mad cows in the country.
The change is supported by Kirby Institute modeling, which showed the risk of acquiring variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease from a blood transfusion in Australia was one in 1.4 billion, and this risk would continue to decrease over time.
“In all our models, we took a wide range of assumptions and considered the worst-case scenarios, and we still found that the risk was extremely low,” said Professor Matthew Law, head of the Biostatistics and Databases Program at Kirby.
Only two cases of the disease have been reported worldwide since 2015.
Ireland lifted its ban on donors who were former UK residents in 2019, and the UK itself changed its rules, which only restricted the use of local blood plasma, in 2021. This year, the UK The U.S. Food and Drug Administration also determined that local blood services could eliminate. restrictions, which are expected to occur progressively over the coming months.
“As time has gone on and we now have more than two decades of scientific evidence, it’s time,” Stone said, noting he hoped the change would also encourage some of the 11 million Australians already eligible to make a donation to reserve.
How to book a blood donation appointment
- Visit the Lifeblood website or call 13 14 95 to determine if you are eligible to donate.
- Reserve at a donor center. LifeBlood hopes to see a rush in appointments with the eligibility change for UK residents, Stone says, but will also need more new donors to join throughout the winter.
- The day before donating, drink plenty of water (10 glasses for men and eight for women). Three hours before your appointment, drink about 750ml of water (three glasses) and eat something salty. Do not do vigorous exercise on the day of your appointment.
- Be sure to bring an ID showing your full name, date of birth, address, signature and photograph to your appointment. Write down the medicines you take so you can tell the staff.
Another group banned from donating blood are men who have sex with men, who must abstain from sexual activity for three months before donating, a rule established because of HIV rates.
But with Australia moving closer to eliminating HIV, Stone said LifeBlood was “working on a submission” for the Therapeutic Goods Administration to change its rules to allow plasma donations.
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