JPAC Joint United Kingdom (UK) Blood Transfusion and Tissue Transplantation Services Professional Advisory Committee
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Addiction and Drug Abuse

Obligatory

Must not donate if:
a) Has injected, or has been injected with drugs in the past 12 months

b) Adversely affected by any drug, including alcohol, which may affect the process of obtaining valid consent.

c) Has injected, been injected with, or taken non-parenteral chemsex drugs in the past 3 months. Please see Tissues Safety Entry.

Discretionary

a) Accept if has not injected or been injected with other non-prescription drugs (other than drugs of addiction), such as bodybuilding drugs or injectable tanning agent within the past 3 months.  

b) Accept if has not injected or been injected with drugs of addiction within the last 12 months

c) If has not injected or been injected with drugs of addiction within the last 3 months – refer to designated medical officer. The donor may be accepted with individual risk assessment. See additional information section

d) May be acceptable if injected drugs were prescribed by the donor's physician for a condition that would not lead to exclusion.

e) Previous use of non-parenteral drugs does not necessarily require exclusion.

See if Relevant

Tissues Safety Entry

Additional Information

Injecting drugs has been linked with the passing on of many infections, including hepatitis and HIV. It can be many years before any infection shows itself. Former drug users often do not realize that they can still pass infection on to others many years after they last used drugs themselves. The deferral periods specified above may be reduced by doing individual risk assessment if the risk of acquiring an infectious disease may be outweighed by the risk of delaying a lifesaving transplantation. This guidance presumes that a validated NAT test for HIV, HBV and HCV is negative, if this test is stopped for any reason the guidance will change

Anyone obviously affected by alcohol or other drugs that can affect the mind, cannot give valid consent or fully understand why they are being asked certain questions.

Reason for Change

Obligatory section updated as a part of the implementation of recommendations from the FAIR III report, including addition of chemsex drugs.

Update Information

This entry was last updated in
TDSG-BM Edition 203, Release 52