“We, FDA, are issuing this guidance to provide recommendations for evaluating donor eligibility using individual risk-based questions.” Those words began the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s 2023 recommendations to move from time-related deferrals for certain blood donors to the use of individual risk-based questions to reduce the risk of human immunodeficiency virus transmission (HIV).1
Because of this change, the Donor Health Questionnaire (DHQ) used to screen blood donors in the United States no longer includes questions specific to men who have sex with men (MSM) and now includes behavioral-based questions that all donors must answer.
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