Reminder: if you've ever been told you can't donate blood because of risk factors, either around sexual activity or past international travel, chances are very good that the latest updates to the donor criteria have made you newly eligible: www.redcrossblood.org/donate-blood...
on that note: the FDA recently overhauled all their eligibility guidelines wrt high risk behaviours for contracting bloodborne diseases like hepatitis and HIV to be what they should be—behaviour is the only factor addressed, w/ neither gender nor sexuality being taken into account in that behaviour!
If you've been told you can't donate blood because of the vCJD risk from having spent more than 6 months in the UK, France, or Ireland since 1980, that restriction is entirely lifted. (There are still some restrictions for people who've received hGH.)
The eligibility requirement around sexual activity is no longer tied to your preference in sexual partners. Anyone is eligible to donate as long as they have not had anal sex with a partner who is new to them in the last three months and are not taking PrEP.
The requirement to not be taking PrEP is because the initial screening for HIV on donated blood is done with samples being batched -- a few drops are taken from multiple donations, pooled together, and tested, and if the pooled blood tests positive, each contributor to the batch is then tested.
If one contributor to the pooled batch of blood is taking PrEP, it can interfere with the testing of the entire batch and cause it all to test negative even if one of the other contributors has an otherwise-detectable HIV viral load.
If you've ever formally been deferred from donating blood due to failing any screening test in the past, prior to them changing the screening tests they use to ones that are less susceptible to false positives, you are also eligible for a one-time override with extra screening.
To start the reinstatement process, or if you have questions about whether you're eligible due to medication you're taking or specific health conditions, call the Donor Eligibility Center: 1-866-236-3276
The requirement to not be taking PrEP is because the initial screening for HIV on donated blood is done with samples being batched -- a few drops are taken from multiple donations, pooled together, and tested, and if the pooled blood tests positive, each contributor to the batch is then tested.
Yes! The risk isn't about that specific donor, it's about interference with the screening assays on the other donations in the pool. The pooling for testing is to save time and consume as little of the donated blood as possible in testing.
