Addiction and drug abuse - Tissue - Deceased Donors

Essential information

Obligatory

Must not donate if:

1. Has injected, or has been injected with drugs in the past 12 months.
2. Has injected, been injected with, or taken non-parenteral chemsex drugs in the past 3 months. See Tissues safety.

Discretionary

1. Accept if has not injected or been injected with other non-prescription drugs (other than drugs of addiction), such as bodybuilding drugs or injectable tanning agent within the past 3 months.
2. Accept if has not injected, or been injected with, drugs of addiction within the last 12 months.
3. If has not injected or been injected with drugs of addiction within the last 3 months – refer to Designated Medical Officer. The donor may be accepted with individual risk assessment. See Additional Information.
4. May be acceptable if injected drugs were prescribed by the donor's physician for a condition that would not lead to exclusion.
5. Previous use of non-parenteral drugs does not necessarily require exclusion.

Supporting information

See if relevant

• Tissues safety

Additional information

Injecting drugs has been linked with the passing on of many infections, including hepatitis and HIV. The deferral periods specified above may be reduced by doing individual risk assessment if the risk of acquiring an infectious disease may be outweighed by the risk of delaying a lifesaving transplantation. This guidance presumes that a validated NAT test for HIV, HBV and HCV is negative, if this test is stopped for any reason the guidance will change.

Reason for change:

Obligatory section updated as a part of the implementation of recommendations from the FAIR III report, including addition of chemsex drugs.

Version details:

TD-DSG Edition 203 Release 57 (15 November 2023)