Canadian Blood Services is facing a shortage of blood if more donors don’t step forward, stat.
According to CTV News, the organization needs over 22,000 donations before August 26th in order to be able to meet blood transfusion demands throughout the year.
The O-negative blood type is particularly precious as it is compatible with all other blood types and is therefore used in hospitals for emergency blood transfusions.
Click here to donate!
Eligibility
In April 2018, Canadian Blood Services updated the eligibility criteria for donors to include some significant changes.
For example, people who’ve gotten tattoos or piercings can now donate blood three months after the fact, instead of waiting for six months. Click here to read more about this and other changes.
Arguably, one of the organization’s most controversial rules is that which does not allow men from donating blood if they have had sex with another man within one year.
Here is Canadian Blood Services’ response to a Facebook comment about lifting this ban to help with the donation shortage:
“A focused effort toward evidence-based change is also underway. We are currently supporting 11 research projects that could lead to changes in the eligibility criteria for men who have sex with men.”
Here is a link to the research projects they refer to.