CJD blood ban will be lifted

Cyril Mateum, left, and Steve Dalgety were sharing the good news.

Blood donors who have been turned away in New Zealand if they were in parts of Europe between 1980 and 1996 are to be made welcome again.

People who lived for more than six months in the United Kingdom, France or the Republic of Ireland in those years were made ineligible to donate blood because at that time there was an epidemic of the human variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), also known as ‘’mad cow disease’’.

The NZ Blood Service website says people in that category are permanently deferred from donating blood and plasma in New Zealand but “that said, we’re currently in the process of reviewing our vCJD deferral following recent developments overseas to ensure that it remains relevant”.

Australia and the United States did away with the eligibility criteria this year and the site says it plans follow suit – “however, a number of steps need to be undertaken before the criteria can be changed”.

Visitors to the Blood Service site at the Hauora Taiwhenua Health and Wellbeing Hub at Fieldays were given an update – and told the door will be reopened next year.

More Recent News

Libraries – ‘more than books’

The man helping take Waipā District Libraries’ public services into the age of technology has been nuts about computers since he was about four. Now in his late 20s, Joe Poultney is a self-confessed techno-nerd…

Fears over waste plan

The proposal to build a waste to energy plant in Te Awamutu is the antithesis of all the district stands for, says Waipā mayor Susan O’Regan. O’Regan appeared before an independent Board of Inquiry in…

Five councils take the plunge

Ōtorohanga District Council led the way last week as the first of five councils to decide to hand its drinking and waste water over to a council-controlled water authority. Ōtorohanga councillors voted to join stage…

Brilliant bare necessities

The deft hands of a veterinary surgeon and scientist are the same hands that have crafted the brilliant costumes for the upcoming St Peter’s Catholic School production of The Jungle Book. The three performances in…