FDA Updates Rules on Who Can Donate Their Body Parts
Published Date: 1/7/2025
Notice
Summary
The FDA just dropped a draft guide to help decide who can donate human cells and tissues safely. This update affects doctors, tissue banks, and anyone involved in donations, aiming to keep diseases from spreading. You’ve got until February 6, 2025, to share your thoughts before the final rules roll out—no big costs yet, just smarter safety checks!
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4 provisions identified: 4 benefits, 0 costs, 0 mixed.
Draft donor-eligibility guidance released
The FDA published a draft guidance titled "Recommendations for Determining Eligibility of Donors of Human Cells, Tissues, and Cellular and Tissue-Based Products (HCT/Ps)" and is accepting comments through February 6, 2025. The draft updates existing recommendations to assist establishments that make donor eligibility determinations, including revised exceptions, clarifications to the donor medical history interview, and considerations about specimens for donor testing.
Planned pathogen-specific guidances
FDA intends to issue separate additional guidances addressing reducing transmission risk for specific agents including HIV, hepatitis B and C, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, sepsis, transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, cytomegalovirus, Chlamydia trachomatis, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, human T-lymphotropic virus, Treponema pallidum (syphilis), vaccinia virus, West Nile virus, and xenotransplantation. These pathogen-specific recommendations will be issued in addition to the general donor-eligibility guidance.
Zika guidance withdrawn—ZIKV not relevant
FDA has withdrawn the 2018 guidance ‘‘Donor Screening Recommendations to Reduce the Risk of Transmission of Zika Virus by Human Cells, Tissues, and Cellular and Tissue-Based Products’’ and states that Zika virus (ZIKV) is no longer considered a relevant communicable disease agent for potential HCT/P donors. The withdrawal and determination are explicitly noted in the draft guidance announcement.
FDA will publish comprehensive donor lists
When finalized, FDA intends to collate the general and specific guidances and publish comprehensive lists on its website of: conditions and behaviors that increase donor communicable-disease risk; examples of clinical and physical evidence of disease or high-risk behavior; disease agents for which all donors must be tested; and the types of tests FDA currently considers adequate to meet 21 CFR 1271.80(c).
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