Passage: Donors are screened for health risks that could make the donation unsafe for the recipient.  Some of these restrictions are controversial, such as restricting donations from men who have sex with men (MSM) because of the risk of transmitting HIV. In 2011, the UK (excluding Northern Ireland) reduced its blanket ban on MSM donors to a narrower restriction which only prevents MSM from donating blood if they have had sex with other men within the past year. A similar change was made in the U.S. in late 2015 by the FDA.  Autologous donors are not always screened for recipient safety problems since the donor is the only person who will receive the blood. Since the donated blood may be given to pregnant women or women of child-bearing age, donors taking teratogenic (birth defect causing) medications are deferred. These medications include acitretin, etretinate, isotretinoin, finasteride and dutasteride.Donors are examined for signs and symptoms of diseases that can be transmitted in a blood transfusion, such as HIV, malaria, and viral hepatitis.  Screening may include questions about risk factors for various diseases, such as travel to countries at risk for malaria or variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (vCJD). These questions vary from country to country.  For example, while blood centers in Québec, Poland, and many other places defer donors who lived in the United Kingdom for risk of vCJD, donors in the United Kingdom are only restricted for vCJD risk if they have had a blood transfusion in the United Kingdom.

Question: What are donors screened for before actually donating?
health risks