International Symposium organized by Héma-Québec and Canadian Blood Services

• To favour knowledge transfer, this one-day symposium invited experts from various countries to share strategies to mitigate the risk of transfusion-transmitted infections following the removal of deferral criteria related to sexual orientation. In particular, experts from countries which have moved to a gender-neutral, individualized risk assessment shared their experience, including the steps that were undertaken to document the impact of this paradigm shift. The similarities and differences in eligibility criteria across jurisdictions, and the rationales that were used to justify these criteria, were highlighted.
• To support future recommendations and better align future research, the experts and stakeholders were invited to discuss:
  • the impacts of various risk mitigation strategies on blood safety and costs;
  • the impacts on the size of the donor pool;
  • how these strategies are perceived by new donors; and
  • how these changes have been monitored.

• To foster productive discussions, key stakeholders, including governmental partners, were invited to share their views on the risk of transfusion-transmitted infections following the removal of deferral criteria related to sexual orientation and what challenges lie ahead.

• To shed light on other future or immediate needs regarding blood safety, key stakeholders discussed measures implemented to mitigate the risks associated with pre- or post-exposure prophylaxis (oral or injectable) among new eligible donors, post-implementation surveillance, and the potential use of pathogen reduction technologies to remove behavioural, individualized donor screening questions.

Guest speakers :

• Antoine Lewin — Héma-Québec, Québec, Canada      
• Brian Custer  – Vitalant Research Institute, California, USA      
• Darrell Tan — St. Michael's Hopsital, Ontario, Canada      
• Eilat Shinar — Israel's National Blood Services, Magen David Adom, Israel      
• Eleonora Widmer — CSL Behring, Switzerland      
• Gilles Lambert — Institut national de santé publique du Québec, Québec, Canada      
• Katy Davison — United Kingdom Health Security Agency; London, UK      
• Marie-Pier Domingue — Héma-Québec et Université de Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada      
• Marion Lanteri — Creative Testing Solution, Arizona, USA      
• Pierre Tiberghien — Établissement français du sang, La Plaine Saint-Denis, France
• Sheila O’Brien — Canadian Blood Services, Ontario, Canada      
• Stephen Field — Irish Blood Transfusion Service, Ireland     
• Steven Drews — Canadian Blood Services, Alberta, Canada      
• Thijs van de Laar — Sanquin, Netherlands     
• Tor Hervig — Irish Blood Transfusion Service, Ireland

Moderators :

• Clive Seed — The Australian Red Cross Lifeblood, Australia
• Marc Germain — Héma-Québec, Québec, Canada
• Michael Bush — Vitalant Research Institute, California, USA
• Mindy Goldman — Canadian Blood Services, Ontario, Canada

• Welcome speech by Marc Germain (0:00 - 5:54)
• Introduction by Mindy Goldman (5:55 - 16:00)
• Questions (16:01 - 24:32)

PrEP and PEP

Moderator introduction: Michael Busch

• Darell Tan
  • Speaker introduction (1:54 - 2:22)
  • Presentation (2:23 - 13:23)
• Brian Custer
  
  • Speaker introduction (13:24 - 14:04)
  • Presentation (14:05 - 27:19)
• Steven Drews
  
  • Speaker introduction (27:18 - 27:49)
  • Presentation (27:50 - 38:43)
• Discussion among session 2 speakers - part 1 (38:44 - 58:51)

Pathogen reduction technology

Moderator introduction: Mindy Goldman

• Marion Lanteri
  • Speaker introduction (59:55 - 1:00:50)
  • Presentation (1:00:50 - 1:14:48)
• Denis Klochkov
  • Speaker introduction (1:14:49 - 1:16:18)
  • Presentation (1:16:20 - 1:28:52)
• Marie-Pier Domingue
  • Speaker introduction (1:28:53 - 1:30:05)
  • Presentation (1:30:06 - 1:41:55)
• Concluding remarks (1:59:00 - 2:00:51)