Backgrounder: Whole Blood

• A male can donate up to six times a year and a female can donate up to four times a year. All collection kits are sterilized and single use. You cannot get AIDS or any other infectious disease by donating blood.
• Our multi-tiered approach to safety includes extensive screening, strict donor selection criteria, and state-of-the-art testing technology.
• Canadian Blood Services tests all blood for the following diseases: syphilis, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, HIV-1 and 2, Human T-Cell lymphotropic virus HTLV-I and II, and West Nile Virus. Testing for Chagas disease is done on at risk donors and testing for Cytomegalovirus is done selectively as appropriate. Blood is also tested for ABO, Rh, and other blood groups.
• 100 per cent of blood components, including plasma, that are used for transfusion in Canada are donated by volunteer Canadian donors.

Canadian Blood Services recruits voluntary donors and collects whole blood at over 35 permanent sites and approximately 14,000 clinics each year. We are responsible for ensuring the safety of Canada’s blood system, beginning by carefully screening donors to confirm they are in good health and eligible to donate.

Canadian Blood Services manages the national supply of blood, blood products and stem cells, and related services for all the provinces and territories (excluding Québec). We also lead an integrated, interprovincial system for organ donation and transplantation for all of Canada.