Vic: Parents to be allowed to donate blood, Thwaites

AAP General News (Australia)
12-09-1999
Vic: Parents to be allowed to donate blood, Thwaites

MELBOURNE, Dec 9 AAP - Parents in Victoria will be allowed to donate blood to their
children under changes to the state's health practices.

Health Minister John Thwaites said the Australian Red Cross Blood Service in Victoria
had agreed to allow directed parent-to-child donations where appropriate.

His announcement follows the recommendations of two reviews established after a Melbourne
schoolgirl was infected with HIV after a blood transfusion at the Royal Children's Hospital
in July this year.

Her father, a surgeon, had been refused permission to donate his own blood by the Red
Cross Blood Bank, which said at the time directly-donated blood was less safe than that
donated anonymously.

Mr Thwaites said a questionnaire completed by blood donors had also been amended to
seek more information from them about additional risk factors.

These include whether a donor had had sex with a person living overseas, or who had
previously lived overseas.

It was revealed today that the donor for the infected Melbourne schoolgirl had been
a regular blood donor, but had contracted HIV after having sex with a person from an African
country.

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KEYWORD: HIV BLOOD (CARRIED EARLIER)

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