The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) yesterday announced that it would ease age requirements for blood donors, and adjust weight and body temperature regulations, effective immediately.
The adjustments are the first change to the guidelines since they were implemented in 2006, although discussions were held to change them in 2018.
Sixteen-year-olds can now donate blood, down from the previous age requirement of 17, while people older than 70 can now donate if they have a record of giving blood in the previous two years and the consent of a doctor, FDA Deputy Director-General Wang Der-yuan (王德原) said in a telephone interview.
Photo: Chiu Chih-jou, Taipei Times
The weight guidelines have also been adjusted, with both men and women to be at least 45kg to donate blood and at least 50kg to donate blood products such as white blood cells, platelets or plasma.
Previously, men had to be 50kg and women 45kg for donations.
For those taking retinoic acid orally, the Taiwan Blood Services Foundation requires that they stop for one month prior to donating, Wang said, adding that the foundation is concerned about possible birth defects from the medication.
Retinoic acid falls under the foundation’s requirement for a waiting period when donating blood as it could be harmful to the donor or the recipient, he said.
The FDA has also introduce limits on blood donors who undergo dental surgery, due to how dental procedures can leave wounds in a person’s mouth and increase the risk of infection, he said.
Donors must wait a week after an oral procedure to donate blood, he added.
Men who have sex with men are still barred from donating blood, the FDA said.
The agency said it would continue to monitor international scientific research and regulatory developments, and consider revising regulations to ensure the safety of donors and recipients, as well as ensure an adequate supply of blood.
Right-wing political scientist Laura Fernandez on Sunday won Costa Rica’s presidential election by a landslide, after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade. Fernandez’s nearest rival, economist Alvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff. With 94 percent of polling stations counted, the political heir of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves had captured 48.3 percent of the vote compared with Ramos’ 33.4 percent, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. As soon as the first results were announced, members of Fernandez’s Sovereign People’s Party
MORE RESPONSIBILITY: Draftees would be expected to fight alongside professional soldiers, likely requiring the transformation of some training brigades into combat units The armed forces are to start incorporating new conscripts into combined arms brigades this year to enhance combat readiness, the Executive Yuan’s latest policy report said. The new policy would affect Taiwanese men entering the military for their compulsory service, which was extended to one year under reforms by then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in 2022. The conscripts would be trained to operate machine guns, uncrewed aerial vehicles, anti-tank guided missile launchers and Stinger air defense systems, the report said, adding that the basic training would be lengthened to eight weeks. After basic training, conscripts would be sorted into infantry battalions that would take
GROWING AMBITIONS: The scale and tempo of the operations show that the Strait has become the core theater for China to expand its security interests, the report said Chinese military aircraft incursions around Taiwan have surged nearly 15-fold over the past five years, according to a report released yesterday by the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Department of China Affairs. Sorties in the Taiwan Strait were previously irregular, totaling 380 in 2020, but have since evolved into routine operations, the report showed. “This demonstrates that the Taiwan Strait has become both the starting point and testing ground for Beijing’s expansionist ambitions,” it said. Driven by military expansionism, China is systematically pursuing actions aimed at altering the regional “status quo,” the department said, adding that Taiwan represents the most critical link in China’s
EMERGING FIELDS: The Chinese president said that the two countries would explore cooperation in green technology, the digital economy and artificial intelligence Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday called for an “equal and orderly multipolar world” in the face of “unilateral bullying,” in an apparent jab at the US. Xi was speaking during talks in Beijing with Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi, the first South American leader to visit China since US special forces captured then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro last month — an operation that Beijing condemned as a violation of sovereignty. Orsi follows a slew of leaders to have visited China seeking to boost ties with the world’s second-largest economy to hedge against US President Donald Trump’s increasingly unpredictable administration. “The international situation is fraught
RSS