Chris McKeen
Behind the scenes of the NZ Blood Service’s Auckland laboratory and donation facility. (File photo)
A two-decade ban on blood donations due to risk of mad cow disease looks set to be lifted within six months, with an application to remove the ban now sitting with the safety regulator.
The ban prevents anyone who spent six months or more in the UK, Ireland, or France between 1980 and 1996 from donating blood. When it was introduced in 2000, the ban affected about 10% of donors.
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MedSafe confirmed the NZ Blood Service lodged an application this week to lift the ban, but could not confirm exactly when the assessment would be finished.
It can take up to three months for MedSafe to review the application and complete the legal steps needed to lift the ban, but that can take longer depending on complexity, the regulator confirmed.
Then, the Blood Service said it could take up to two months to update its systems before the change is made public. The initial goal was to have changes made this year.
Blood products are medicines under the Medicines Act, which means MedSafe controls the ban, as the national drug safety regulator.
Mad cow disease is officially known as Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD). A variant of fatal disease in the UK originated from eating contaminated meat. There have been no known cases of this variant in New Zealand or Australia, according to the Blood Service.
Donor Sivabalan Ramesh has an extremely rare blood type. (Video first published in June 2021)
But there are no tests available to detect these conditions in blood donations. This was the reason behind the ban, which also applies to people who received blood transfusions in the UK, Ireland or France since 1980.
Australia and the US both lifted the ban in 2022, which is understood to be what prompted New Zealand to consider the move.
The NZ Blood Service was approached for comment.