Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of reviewing the blood donation eligibility requirements for recent travel.

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is responsible for blood donation in England, and blood donor selection guidelines are prepared by the Joint United Kingdom (UK) Blood Transfusion and Tissue Transplantation Services Professional Advisory Committee (JPAC).

The JPAC has a comprehensive process to review and assess reports of disease outbreaks from across the world. Assessment of a donor's travel history is an important means of reducing the risk of transfusion transmitted infections.

For some infections, such as West Nile virus or malaria, it is possible to test the donation rather than defer the donors. But for other infections, NHSBT defers donors until they are past the incubation period. Currently, there are no further suitable validated tests that could be used for donation testing, although work is ongoing to evaluate potential new tests which may result in fewer deferrals.