BTSB bid to extend CJD safeguards

The Blood Transfusion Service Board intends to extend the safeguards put in place last year to prevent the spread of CJD, the human form of mad cow disease.

At the launch of its annual report it announced that anyone who lived in the United Kingdom for more than 12 months during the height of the BSE scare, will not be allowed to donate blood in Ireland.

Last year it banned blood donations from anyone who had lived in the UK for five consecutive years anytime between 1980 and 1996.

Next year they will extend the ban to anyone who resided in Britain for more than a year at the height of the BSE risk period.

They say it is possible to do this now due to the increase in the numbers of people donating blood.

They say this rise in the numbers donating blood shows a new confidence in the blood bank following the Hepatitis C scandal.