Vitalant now following updated FDA guidance on donor eligibility for blood donations

COLORADO (KRDO) — Beginning Monday, nonprofit blood services provider Vitalant is welcoming more blood donors under the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) updated eligibility guidelines. 

RELATED: Gay, bisexual men now able to donate blood following Red Cross, FDA’s new guidelines

For the first time in decades, blood donor eligibility is evaluated independent of sexual orientation.

The FDA updated its guidelines earlier this year to eliminate the decades-old rule that stemmed from the AIDS crisis. Under previous FDA guidance, sexually active gay and bisexual men were deferred from giving blood for three months. Vitalant said the updated donor questionnaire now impartially evaluates the individual risk of HIV instead of the long-standing blanket guidance. The donor questionnaire is one part of a multilayered safety approach that also includes infectious disease testing of every donation.  

According to Vitalant, only about three % of the U.S. population donates blood, but a patient in the U.S. needs blood every two seconds. 

For more information, including donation locations, visit vitalant.org.