Re-entry of donors deferred for false-reactive screening tests in Canada: 10 years post implementation

Area of Science:

• Blood Transfusion Medicine
• Infectious Disease Screening
• Donor Management

Background:

• Canadian Blood Services established a donor re-entry program in 2014.
• Donors with false-reactive or indeterminate screening results can re-enter after 6 months.
• The program aims to re-engage deferred donors if they test negative for infectious markers.

Purpose of the Study:

• Evaluate the impact of the re-entry program on donor return and retention.
• Assess factors associated with reactive results during re-entry testing.
• Analyze the effectiveness of the re-entry program in maintaining blood supply.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of 8094 donors deferred for hepatitis B virus (HBV), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and hepatitis C virus (HCV) from 2014 to 2025.
• Characterization of donors by sex, age, donation status, and infection marker.
• Logistic regression used to identify predictors of reactive re-entry test results.

Main Results:

• 17.3% of eligible donors returned to donate; 35.5% participated in re-entry testing.
• Repeat and older donors showed higher participation rates.
• Among tested donors, 59.2% were negative, with most continuing to donate; 13.1% had false-reactive results upon return, more common in first-time donors.

Conclusions:

• The donor re-entry program successfully improved donor retention and increased the blood supply.
• Reminder notifications could potentially enhance participation rates in the re-entry program.
• The program demonstrates a viable strategy for re-integrating deferred donors.