Implementation of sexual risk behaviour donor screening in Canada

Introduction

In 2022 Canadian Blood Services and Héma-Québec removed the three month deferral for men who have sex with men and adopted gender neutral criteria assessing sexual risk behaviours in all donors. We assessed the impact of these changes on the safety and adequacy of the blood supply, one year post-implementation at Canadian Blood Services and 9 months post-implementation at Héma-Québec.

Methods

All allogeneic donors are asked if they have had a new partner or more than one sexual partner in the last 3 months. Donors answering yes to either question are asked if they had anal sex in the last 3 months; if yes, they are deferred for 3 months. We followed HIV rates before and after the criteria change and interviewed HIV positive donors. We assessed the number of donors answering yes to the new questions and the number deferred by age, gender, and donation status. Data on donors, donations, transmissible disease markers and deferrals were extracted from our epidemiology databases. Source plasma donors were not included. Comparisons were made using the chi-square test.

Results

There were three HIV positive donations out of 990,291 donations pre-implementation and four out of 929,384 post-implementation (0.30/100,000 vs 0.43/100,000, P=.72). All post-implementation HIV positive donors were male, Canadian Blood Services' donors in Ontario. One was non-compliant with multiple criteria. No risk factors were identified in the other three positive donors, although one had English comprehension difficulties. 2.9% of donors answered yes to a new partner and/or more than one partner; the percentage answering yes to a new partner was higher than more than one partner (2.6% vs 1.2%, P<.0001). On implementation, 0.15% of donors were deferred for a new partner and/or more than one partner and anal sex. Deferral rates were highest in first time, younger donors, with similar rates in males and females, and have decreased to 0.06% one year post-implementation.

Conclusions

Implementation of sexual risk behavior donor screening resulted in unchanged HIV rates and a manageable impact on blood availability. Gender-neutral criteria have also simplified screening for trans donors. After over 30 years, we are no longer asking donors about their sexual orientation, increasing the inclusiveness in our donor base.