Canadian Blood Services to End Geography-Based Donor Deferrals Related to vCJD Risk

Canadian Blood Services (CBS) will remove geography-based donor eligibility criteria related to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) after receiving regulatory approval from Health Canada, the organization announced Nov. 23.

The change will take effect Dec. 4 and applies to the following groups:

• Individuals who spent three or more months in the United Kingdom between 1980 and 1996 or received a blood transfusion in that country.
• Individuals who lived in France or Ireland for more than five years between 1980 and 2001 or received a blood transfusion in those countries.

In 2022, CBS permitted people who lived or spent time in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Saudi Arabia and Switzerland to donate blood and plasma. 

Additional information about vCJD is available on the AABB website.