Starting December 4, thousands of people suffering from diabetes or who may have been exposed to a variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease will be eligible to donate blood products.
Héma-Québec announced Wednesday that it has obtained authorization from Health Canada to remove from its list of exclusion criteria for donating blood products people who may have been exposed to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, commonly known as mad cow disease. .
Héma-Québec recalls that for many years, like several blood establishments around the world, it prohibited the donation of blood to people who traveled or lived during the 1980s and 1990s in certain countries, notably France. and the United Kingdom. This ban was intended to prevent the transmission of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease by transfusion. Héma-Québec therefore had to refuse thousands of potential donors.
A vice-president of Héma-Québec, Dr Marc Germain explains that after several years without new cases, statistical estimates demonstrate a virtually zero risk of a new transmission event. He specifies that experts now believe that it is safe to no longer apply this ban.
On the other hand, Héma-Québec is also modifying its criterion concerning diabetes, which will allow more people suffering from this disease to donate blood products. This change will also come into force on December 4.
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