Evening Herald screws up?

jd

Hi
I think I'm correct in assuming that the evening herald has misread the original report.



This is the bit that concerns me- "Thirty people contracted the infection when they donated blood".

GuanYin

Originally posted by jd
.

This is the bit that concerns me- "Thirty people contracted the infection when they donated blood".

Oddly I looked at the report and noticed that. Needles are sterile and disposable so in Ireland it is slim to zero chance taht you'll get HIV donating blood.

However, blood donation and needles are a large source of HIV infection in developing countries and its something the WHO is slowly coming to terms with.

I'd imagine that those 30 are non-nationals who donated blood abroad.

delly

Jesus H C:eek:, trying to give me a heart attack or what?

It better not be as it appears to be, or i'm gonna go down and kick that pelicans ass

GuanYin

Originally posted by delly
or i'm gonna go down and kick that pelicans ass

Care to elaborate on what this means?

delly

Simply meaning that if it turned that if the IBTS had infected blood donors thru negligent or incompetent practices, I would be highly annoyed and stressed, as I am a current blood donor who has done so since legally possible.

I take it from your post that you are possibly seeing my slang tone as a non serious view on a very serious subject. I assure you this is not the case. I tend to post the way I talk.

jd

Originally posted by syke
I'd imagine that those 30 are non-nationals who donated blood abroad.

That's what I reckoned too. However, the report has put one friend off giving blood.

seamus

Originally posted by syke
I'd imagine that those 30 are non-nationals who donated blood abroad.

That's what I assumed, but only because of the "80 per cent of these were among Africans".

Very poorly worded and explained article.

jd

Email received this morning...

Hi John,
Thanks for you mail about last Friday's Evening Herald report on HIV. The Herald has acknowledged that it misrepresented the NDSC statistics and will print a clarification. It was incorrect to report 'thirty people having contracted the infection when they donated blood'. These people actually became aware of having contracted HIV when their blood was screened and did not come into contact with the disease through donating blood.

The report also erroneously gives the impression that all of these people became aware of being HIV in 2003. The number referred to is an aggregate total of cases over a number of years.

The NDSC has liaised with the Irish Blood Transfusion Service since the report appeared last Friday evening and both organisations have brought the inaccuracies to the attention of the Herald.

ChipZilla

Assholes. I wonder how many people will never donate blood again after reading that tabloid crap?

eth0_

Originally posted by ChipZilla
Assholes. I wonder how many people will never donate blood again after reading that tabloid crap?

True. Feck all people are even allowed donate blood as it is - personally I can't because I lived in the north during the 80's, and I have tattoos and piercings. But I do try to give blood when I am visiting Belfast. I quite enjoy it.

GuanYin

Originally posted by eth0_
But I do try to give blood when I am visiting Belfast. I quite enjoy it.

Slightly off topic, but many people find donating blood a pleasurable experience and get a sorta high off it.

Its thought to be one of the reasons that controlled blood letting is so popular in many US underground night clubs, especially in NYC where people go to be bled by "vampires"...

eth0_

Originally posted by syke
Slightly off topic, but many people find donating blood a pleasurable experience and get a sorta high off it.

I don't get a high off it, I just find it interesting watching the blood drain out of your body, heh.

oneweb

This is sickening sensationalist journalism. The writer evidently thought it'd be a good idea to glance over a report and fill in his/her own blanks. It's stupidity and ignorance like this which negates people's willingness to volunteer. The writer should be reprimanded and an equally big headline of Herald gets it all out of perspective although we all know the likelyhood of that. More than likely it'll be a 8pt font in an inch square to 'clarify' the article.

syke, the pelican is the icon of the Blood Transfusion Service.

delly

I saw the clarification, and all it said was that it confirmed that the kits that were used to draw blood where only used once, therefore it was not possible to contract HIV.

There was no mention of the fact that the 30 people just found out at the time of donation

GuanYin

Originally posted by delly
I saw the clarification, and all it said was that it confirmed that the kits that were used to draw blood where only used once, therefore it was not possible to contract HIV.

There was no mention of the fact that the 30 people just found out at the time of donation

In fairness, the NDSC report is quite ambiguously presented (I saw the original document and did a double take) and it has been "mentioned" internally.


As for the Herald, well first off...its a cheap tabloid at the end of the day, what do you expect. Secondly, I've yet to meet a journalist that is properly trained or has the required moral and ethical fibre to report on medical science (and some of my good friends and even an ex girlfriend are journos).

As Dawkins said "Science Journalism is far too important to be left to journalists".