Reply #11: "Indefinitely Deferred" Now

[tsipple]

I donated lots of blood over the years, starting in high school. The local blood bank was very good about calling me on the day I was eligible to donate again, probably because I always kept my appointments.

And then the FDA changed the rules so that people who spent a cummulative 3 calendar months in the United Kingdom during several years are now ineligible to donate blood. (The limit used to be 6 months.) I lived in England for about 5 1/2 months in the late 1980s.

The FDA prevents me from donating blood because I'm supposedly at risk for contracting CJD, a brain disorder that is loosely related to "Mad Cow Disease." Never mind that I didn't eat beef in England, as far as I can remember. Never mind that CJD is extremely rare, and no one has ever caught CJD through blood transfusion. (There's a great deal of mystery about CJD and its transmission.) So now you can sleep around with thousands of women, as long as they're reputable (no money, no drugs, etc.), and that's perfectly fine. But spend more than 3 months in England and you're ineligible. Never mind the Canadian Mad Cow scare of late. (You can donate blood if you're Canadian. Apparently Canadians don't get CJD.)

It's totally wacky, and I'm pretty upset, actually, because if I ever need any blood for transfusion, I'm not going to get it from low risk donors like me.