Research and analysis

Blood donor travel survey 2025

Published 21 March 2025

Applies to England

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), in collaboration with NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) and the University of Nottingham (UoN), is carrying out a confidential online 10 to 20 minute survey to understand travel patterns and how accurately donors can recall their travel in the last 12 months. Answering these questions before giving blood makes a big difference to patient safety and helps to minimise deferrals on session.

Why the survey is needed

Accurate information about donor travel is crucial for maintaining the safety of the blood supply. NHSBT continually evaluates the risks posed by emerging infections, such as dengue and West Nile virus, which can affect blood safety and sufficiency. The spread of these diseases has been increasing with outbreaks reported in Europe and mainland United States of America (USA).

After travelling to certain regions, donors may need to wait (be deferred) before they can give blood and report travel or illness at their donation session in case extra tests or deferral time is needed. The UK blood services have a list of affected regions, which they may update at any time based on information on disease outbreaks.

To keep things simple for donors and staff and avoid errors, the UK blood services apply a ‘tropical’ 28-day deferral for donors returning from areas where diseases like dengue are common. This means that donors need to wait for 28 days after their return from a tropical area before they can donate, reducing the risk of anyone donating with asymptomatic infection that could be passed on by transfusion. However, dengue is spreading out of these areas with outbreaks reported recently in Italy, France and mainland USA. Deferrals for these small, limited outbreaks in non-tropical areas are being applied just to the affected areas to avoid deferring too many donors with a country-wide deferral.

According to the Office for National Statistics Travel trends, the top 6 countries visited by UK residents in 2023 were Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Portugal and USA. These countries are of particular concern due to their association with the spread of dengue and other arboviruses, such as West Nile virus, which pose a potential risk to the blood supply.

This survey aims to collect travel information focussing on regions or states within these popular travel countries in Europe and mainland USA, which can’t be gained from national statistics on travel or from the NHSBT donor records. The survey will also report on the accuracy of donor recall.

By understanding travel in more detail and how accurately donors can remember their travel in the last 12 months, NHSBT aims to use the survey findings to assess the impact on donor deferral rates due to the spread of dengue outside tropical areas into popular travel destinations for UK residents, such as Europe and mainland USA. Information on donor recall will be used as part of a wider study by UoN titled ‘Prompts to Reduce Omissions in deferral or testing for Malaria, Past infection and Travel’. The study is to understand what would help donors to report travel accurately.

How the survey is run

NHSBT will invite a random sample of blood donors to take part in the survey via email. Donors will receive a link to a secure online survey hosted by UKHSA which will be open for 4 weeks. Everyone will get 1 reminder email 1 or 2 weeks later. UKHSA will not ask for name or share individual responses ensuring that donors’ responses are kept separate from their donor records. This method ensures that the data is collected without compromising donor confidentiality. This does mean that donors still need to provide all their travel information when they come to donate. This is really important to ensure that deferral or extra testing is applied when needed for West Nile virus or malaria for example to keep recipients safe.

What the survey asks

The survey asks blood donors to provide information about their travel over the past 12 months and how it may have impacted their ability to donate blood. The survey includes questions on:

• whether donors have travelled outside the UK in the last 12 months or not
• which area or areas of the world donors have visited
• if donors have travelled to Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Portugal or mainland USA they will be asked which regions they stayed in and which months they were there
• the methods donors used, if any, to help recall their travel details, such as social media, photos, or booking emails
• how accurately donors think they can remember their travel
• donating blood or platelets 28 days after travel or being deferred after travel
• any signs of illness experienced during or after travel, such as fever, rash, muscle pain, or respiratory symptoms

How NHSBT will use the information

By taking part, donors can help improve the donation process. The information that donors provide in the survey will be used to:

• provide the percentage of donors travelling outside the UK in the last 12 months
• provide a detailed breakdown of travel by region or state and by timing for the top 6 travel destinations in UK residents where future outbreaks of dengue or other mosquito-borne viruses may occur
• understand how well donors can recall their travel in the last 12 months and whether their travel affected their blood donation

By understanding travel patterns and how accurately donors can remember their travel in the last 12 months, NHSBT aims to help donors report travel fully and minimise unnecessary travel-related deferrals during donation sessions.

The results of the survey will be published as group data, meaning individual answers will not be shown, only information about the whole survey group or subgroups. No information that could identify individuals will ever be published. The University of Nottingham will have access to the data to analyse the survey responses with regards to how accurately donors’ can recall their travel in the last 12 months. The University of Nottingham has partnered with the survey team on previous projects to provide expertise for behavioural analysis. This is under the UKHSA’s instruction within a formal data processing agreement to ensure the data is sent and stored safely for analysis by the trained study team only.

Responses to this survey are not linked to donor records. Donors will be asked about travel at their next blood donor session and need to give full information as the blood service will not be provided with their individual responses to the survey.

Privacy

Names and postcode data are not collected, and individual answers will not be shown.

The UKHSA is acting as the data controller for the personal data submitted as part of the survey. For further information on how your data will be treated and contact details of our Data Protection Office visit the UKHSA privacy notice.

This survey evaluating the effectiveness of the donor selection process has been reviewed and undergone the following information governance approvals at UKHSA:

• deemed not research by the NHS Health Research Authority, instead classified as a service evaluation
• Caldicott Advisory Panel Review to ensure safeguarding of personal confidential data: this survey does not require approval under Regulation 3 of the Health Service (Control of Patient Information) Regulations 2002 as it fulfils Caldicott principles
• Research Ethics and Governance Group Review, reviewed by the Research Ethics and Governance Group officers at UKHSA
• Data Protection Impact Assessment reviewed by the Data Protection Officers at UKHSA
• a Data Processing Agreement with UoN

Contact

If you have any questions about the survey, contact donorsurvey@ukhsa.gov.uk

If you have any questions about donor eligibility, you can check the blood service website or call their helpline on 0300 123 23 23.

Blood donor travel survey 2016

In 2016, Public Health England (since replaced by UKHSA) conducted a survey in collaboration with NHSBT to ask blood donors about their travel records and whether this had impacted on their donations in the past. Donors also gave feedback on the travel deferral information provided by NHSBT. The data donors provided was used to identify a low risk of Zika virus in donors returning from the Rio Olympics in 2016.