Move FM Global News

WASHINGTON D.C.: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has set guidelines for blood donation organizations, recommending they screen donors based on one set of criteria.

This is in line with the Biden administration seeking to end the previous set of time-based deferrals and screening questions for people who identified as men who have sex with men and their partners. Risk assessments now apply to all potential donors.

Individuals, other than those who report having a new sexual partner or multiple partners and had sex in the past three months, will be eligible to donate blood, provided all other eligibility criteria are met.

The new rules come several years after the U.S. health regulator reversed a 1980s guideline which banned men who have sex with men from donating blood, but with the caveat they had to abstain from sex for at least a year before donating.

The regulator also recommends new time limits for people taking pre-exposure prophylaxis or post-exposure prophylaxis treatments used for HIV prevention to reflect data showing these medications may delay the detection of HIV and result in false negatives.

The FDA said the rules aim to reduce the risk of transfusion-transmitted HIV and are similar to those in the UK and Canada.