Background and objectives: Until 25 July 2022, Australians who had spent more than 6 months in the United Kingdom or territories between 1980 and 1996 were deferred from blood donation due to the risk of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Removal of this geography-based donor deferral on RhD-negative blood availability has not been reported.
Materials and methods: All donors who donated at least once from 25 July 2022 to 25 July 2023 were included. UK donor status, first-time donor and ABO RhD data were extracted from the National Blood Management System.
Results: Data from 566,447 blood donors with a valid ABO RhD result were analysed. Of these, 34,560 were new or returning lapsed donors following removal of the UK donor deferral. The median age [range] in years for all donors was 43 [75] with UK donors being older 53 [70]. There was a higher prevalence of RhD-negative status in UK donors (20.2%) compared with first-time blood donors (15.7%).
Conclusion: UK donors were generally older, female and more likely to be RhD-negative. Although UK donors provided a boost to RhD-negative blood collections, the overall prevalence of ABO RhD blood groups in the total Australian blood donor panel remained similar to previous estimates.
Keywords: Australia; UK; blood donation deferral; blood donor; blood groups; variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
© 2024 The Authors. Vox Sanguinis published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of International Society of Blood Transfusion.