More People Eligible to Donate Blood

DULUTH, MINN. –More people are now eligible to donate blood thanks to recent decisions by the FDA and the Red Cross. In May the FDA issued a new policy that allows blood banks to change the risk-based questionnaire they use to maintain safeguards in the blood supply. The screening questions that had been in use included travel restrictions and restrictions on gay men.

The Red Cross has now changed its questionnaire, to be much more based on that person’s behavior. This should make blood donations open to many more people. Carrie Carlson-Guestm the Regional Director of Communications for Red Cross said,  “Based on individual risk behavior rather than sexual orientation, so everyone will be asked the same questions and it will be about behavior and not travel or who you may love. It’s really about those risk assessments for individual donors to keep the blood supply as safe as possible.”

Memorial Blood Centers, which has a blood donation site in Duluth, is also planning to adopt a new donor history questionnaire. In a statement given to FOX 21, Memorial Blood Centers said it expects to welcome eligible donors on September 25th.