The management of blood donors’ iron depletion and iron deficiency with multiple whole blood donations continues to be a concern and a hot topic in the blood banking community in the US. A

The management of blood donors’ iron depletion and iron deficiency with multiple whole blood donations continues to be a concern and a hot topic in the blood banking community in the US.
A number of risks and benefits with different mitigation strategies such as iron supplementation, dietary recommendations, modification of the inter-donation interval, and changing the acceptance standard for donor hemoglobin/hematocrit have been discussed in the past.
Please read the below publications and perform a literature review on this issue to answer the following questions:
1. Of the mitigation strategies mentioned above which do you think could have the biggest impact on decreasing iron deficiency/depletion on blood donors?
2. Is there scientific evidence to support changing the inter-donation interval for males and/or females?
3. If yes, what inter-donation intervals would you recommend?
4. How are other countries dealing with this issue? Do they have different standards?
5. What changes in HgB/HCT did the FDA published a few years ago in a Final Rule? Was there any scientific evidence to support those changes?
Iron deficiency in blood donors the REDS-II Donor Iron Status Evaluation Study.pdf
Minimum donation intervals should be reconsidered to decrease low Hgb deferral.pdf
Handling low hemoglobin and iron deficiency in a blood donor.pdf