A designation applied to a blood donor who, for one or more of a variety of reasons, will never be allowed to donate blood for someone else. This term and “indefinite deferral” are often confused because they seem so similar (and they are). However, according to the above definition, which comes from AABB Standards, donors to which a permanent deferral is applied are not expected to ever regain eligibility, even if rules or testing technologies change. Examples of permanent deferrals include donors taking the medication Tegison (etretinate), those with a confirmed positive test for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), and donors with reactive nucleic acid tests for hepatitis C virus or HIV during re-entry testing. Actually, most deferrals that we treat as “permanent” are really “indefinite” according to AABB Standards and FDA guidances.