Australian Red Cross Blood Service - Powerful fact TV ad.mp4

[icekat83]

I know someone who donated for years and really wanted to but then they changed some rules (something about meat which was irrelevant for them because they were strict vegetarian) and now they can't. I don't get it....they accept answers to questions about some stuff but not about food? Why?

[redcrossbloodau]

@icekat83 This most likely refers to the Blood Service policy to reduce the risk of transmission of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (human form of 'mad cow disease'), a universally fatal disease that has no blood screening test available. Anyone who has spent 6 months or more in the UK between 1 Jan 1980 and 31 Dec 1996 is unable to donate blood. Unfortunately vegetarians are included in this exclusion as there’s no way of detecting unknown exposure to beef or beef products during this time.

[spnrulz01]

awesome