Photo by Marja Helander
Canadian Blood Services has made several changes to its blood donor policies in an attempt to broaden the pool of eligible donors in the country.
The agency has eliminated the upper age limit for donating blood, and donors over the age of 71 no longer need to have their physician fill out an assessment form before donating.
People with a history of most cancers are now eligible to donate blood if they have been cancer-free for 5 years.
However, this change does not apply to those with a history of hematologic malignancies.
People who have recently received most vaccines, such as a flu shot, will no longer need to wait 2 days before donating blood.
People who were born in or lived in some African countries (Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Niger, and Nigeria) are now eligible to donate blood. According to Canadian Blood Services, HIV testing performed on blood donors can now detect HIV strains found in these countries.
Canadian Blood Services has also revised geographic deferrals affecting Western Europe based on scientific evidence that indicates the risk of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease has decreased since January 2008.
People who spent 5 years or more in Western Europe since 1980 are deferred from donating blood, but Canadian Blood Services is now including an end date of 2007. People who reached the 5-year limit in Western Europe after 2007 are now eligible to donate.
“Canadian Blood Services regularly reviews the criteria used to determine if someone is eligible to donate blood, including geographic and age restrictions, based on new scientific information,” said Mindy Goldman, medical director of donor and clinical services with Canadian Blood Services.
“These restrictions are no longer necessary. We estimate that about 3000 people who try to donate each year but cannot will now be eligible to donate due to these changes.”
The complete policy changes are available at www.blood.ca/en/blood/recent-changes-donation-criteria.
