Canadian Blood Services - Société canadienne du sang - Chronology of events related to the MSM Policy

Year	Event
Sept. 2009	Trial between Canadian Blood Services and Kyle Freeman will begin in the Superior Court of Ontario in Ottawa

Sept. 2008	CBS forms national LGBTTQ (lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgendered-two-spirited or queer) working group, whose mandate is to act as a resource for CBS to help educate on the issues and sensitivities of the LGBTTQ community while helping to promote the research agenda.

March 2008	CBS launches joint research opportunity with the Canadian Institute for Health Research focused on three areas; donor deferral strategies and the risk of blood-borne diseases, policy development and social aspects of blood system risk, and emerging pathogens in specific populations

June 2007	CBS Board defers pursuing a deferral change while launching research agenda to close the gaps in information identified through the consultations.

2006	CBS conducted its own epidemiological study of 40,000 donors to evaluate the proportion of donors with deferrable risks. The study was repeated in 2008 with results published internally.

2006	American Red Cross, America's Blood Centres and the AABB recommend to the FDA changing deferral to 1 year for MSM - FDA chose to uphold the indefinite ban stating it was the best way to keep the nation's blood supply safe.

2006	McLaughlin Centre for Population Health Risk Assessment commissioned to conduct risk assessment of MSM donor deferral criteria - did not make recommendations, put forward views for discussion at CBS Board of Directors.

2001	CBS implements nucleic acid amplification testing (NAT) for HIV - greatly reducing the "window period" where the virus is undetectable by test, but not eliminating it.

2001	CBS/Hema-Quebec co-sponsored international consensus conference on optimizing the donor selection process - no recommendation to change criteria due to not enough evidence to implement a change in deferral criteria

1988	Year that the current MSM deferral was introduced in blood screening by the Canadian Red Cross via filling out a written questionnaire , a formal consent and confidential unit exclusion form

1985	The first year thousands of Canadians were infected with HIV via tainted blood

1983	The first year a pamphlet was introduced to donors outlining the risk factors for HIV, with the hope that donors would self-exclude.

1977	The year 1977 has been identified as the date when rapid spread of HIV began throughout first world countries such as the United States and Canada.


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Safety and Testing
	Safety and Testing
	The Screening Process
	Testing
	False Positive Results
	Nucleic Acid Testing
	Leukoreduction
	Blood Safety