Rules for blood donation

AngryBadger

Hi all,

I attended a blood donation clininc yesterday and was told I couldn't donate blood until the end of august because I had "sexual relations" with a woman from the phillipines (living in Dublin) 4 months ago.

Fair enough I thought, there have to be guidelines for donor suitability.

However thinking about this afterward I actually don't understand why anyone would be disqualified for that reason. I understand certain regions of the world are considered high risk areas for diseases such as HIV, Hepatitis, and so on, but I don't understand why a 12 month waiting period is enforced on potential donors who've had sexual contact with people originally from any of these regions.

Bear with me here. Let's accept for the moment that even though we were using protection (i.e. condoms) there was the possibility of infection (as there is with certain STDs), all blood donations are screened for conditions like HIV, and numerous other STDs and non-STDs as a matter of course every time someone donates (at least according to the documentaiton you read before donating at the clinic). So surely if someone had contracted anything unbeknowns to themselves it would be picked up at that stage?

Furthermore, why a 12-month ban? I'd consider it far more practical to say 3 months, or even 6 months (although I'd consider that a stretch), since at those time constraints you're more likely to be aware of an infection yourself, and it's far more likely to be at a detectable level in your blood. So why do they enforce a 12 month ban?

The reason I'm curious about this is that as I've said I can't go back to donate until the end of August, but if the opportunity presented itself to have sexual egress with the lady in question today (or at any time between now and august) then I would most certainly take advantage of said opportunity. Which means that I may very well be excluded from ever donating blood. Which to be is mind-numbingly frustrating. I'm a 26 year old male, in perfect health, I have no disease or ailments whatsoever, neither of my parents can donate due to various medical conditions, but those don't apply to me. However I can't donate because of this 12-month rule, a rule which, on the surface at least, does not increase the safety of any potential donations, and does not increase the capacity of the clinic to detect any possible infection before passing blood onto patients awaiting transfusion.

So if anyone has any idea why this 12-month waiting period exists could you please explain it to me?

2Scoops

Although all donations are screened for the major blood-borne diseases, the idea is to enrich the donations for those likely not to fail the screening process. That way, the cost of each test can be weighed against the likelihood of the donation being acceptable.

Also, it can take many months for some conditions, including HIV, to be detected by common methods. The time limit is to account for that, I think.

tallaght01

My understanding was that the phillipines was a relatively low risk country in terms of HIV, although they do have a sex trade problem.


2scoops is right. They don't want huge amounts of bllod discarded because people have infections diseases.

The year limit is presumably to make extra sure no-one slips through. Most cases of HIV can be diagnosed within 6 weeks, using most tests. But it's wise to wait 3 months, as 5 % of cases won't show up until then. But there have been a few cases that didn't show up in peoples' bloods until 9 months post exposure, and even one or 2 cases that didn't show up until 12 months. So, I reckon they're just covering all bases, as even one person infected with HIV nowadays in Ireland through blood products would cause an unimaginbable scandal.

PLus they don't want to have to be responsible for telling people they have HIV, and contacting them etc, I'd imagine. So they only take blood from those who are likely to be negative. Though I've never seen their stats for the numbers of HIV/Hep pos donors they pick up on routine screening of donated blood.

microgirl

What the doc said

Some diseases can take a lot longer to show up than you might think, and the risk is one that no-one is willing to take.

Quite a lot of HepB pos donors come up, and syphilis is becoming frighteningly common. When a donation tests pos for HIV though it's rare and a big deal.

The line is drawn pretty high up, but it's better than the alternative

Oh, and you mean "sexual congress" - sexual egress means sexual exit, which really doesn't make any sense in any language Basically, it's the opposite of access.

AngryBadger

microgirl wrote: »

Oh, and you mean "sexual congress" - sexual egress means sexual exit, which really doesn't make any sense in any language Basically, it's the opposite of access.

Bah! i knew I'd screw up sooner or later :P

Thanks for the responses all, pretty much what I thought.

Ah well.

tommylizard

can recreational drug users give blood or is there a 'cooling-off ' period involved? and by recreational drugs i do of course mean the non-intravenous types. anybody know what the story is in this regard?

microgirl

If you have ever *injected* non-prescription drugs (or to be more correct, drugs that were not prescribed specifically for you ) - including body-building drugs - then you can never donate.

Other drugs? I guess it depends on what drug and how recently you took it. Really the only way of knowing for certain is going in to donate, answering the questionnaire honestly, and then answering the nurse/doctor honestly when they ask more detailed questions for clairification.

You could possibly ring the clinic and ask them, or Donor Services or something. The number should be on the website - www.ibts.ie

tommylizard

have been thinking of donating for a while, might just have to wait another while yet

microgirl

Yeah, ask directly is the best thing. I'd say probably a couple of weeks without ingesting anything, but it might only need to be a few days, or it might be a month. I can't remember.

tommylizard

cheers microgirl, will drop them a line.

tallaght01

That would be mad, if you gave a blood transfusion to some granny, and next thing she was off her head on an "E" buzz.

Capt'n Midnight

Contact info.
DONOR INFOLINE 1850 731 137
National Blood Centre, James's Street, Dublin 8
t: 00 353 1 4322800 f: 00 353 1 4322930 e: info@ibts.ie

Quick list of when not to donate
http://www.ibts.ie/generic.cfm?mID=2&sID=79

Have a look at this PDF too
A more detailed list of reasons why you may not be able to donate today is available by clicking
http://www.ibts.ie/docs/BT%20309-8.pdf
Also, to protect the safety of the blood supply there are reasons why some people may never be eligible to donate.

Chunky Monkey

I'm not allowed to donate cos I lived in the UK at the time of the BSE scandal. Is there some kind of incubation period and then I'll be able to donate later on?

tommylizard

i think it's a year chunky.

and tallaght01- if that were to happen i'd be compelled to charge the old dear 2 or 3 quid for the pleasure - goddamn freeloader!

Chunky Monkey

tallaght01 wrote: »

That would be mad, if you gave a blood transfusion to some granny, and next thing she was off her head on an "E" buzz.

At least she'd be happy

Hmmm only a year? Maybe I'd be able to then.

Tree

Chunky Monkey wrote: »

I'm not allowed to donate cos I lived in the UK at the time of the BSE scandal. Is there some kind of incubation period and then I'll be able to donate later on?

never afaik

incubation period for cjd can be anything, think it averages out about ten years and can only be conclusively diagnosed postmortem so you can see it'd be really hard to screen for.

tallaght01

Tree wrote: »

never afaik

incubation period for cjd can be anything, think it averages out about ten years and can only be conclusively diagnosed postmortem so you can see it'd be really hard to screen for.

That's my take on it,too.

I lived in the UK for along time, and haven't even tried to donate blood in Ireland because I was told I'll never be eligible.

In fairness, I did eat some manky burgers in when I was living in Glasgow, but I thought the hours of deep frying would have denatured even the most resilient prion

Tree

man, imagine if that worked! you could start up a vegetable oil sterilizer business and make a mint!

Chunky Monkey

Mmmm can I have gerkins with that please?

Capt'n Midnight

If you can't donate blood because you've lived in the UK, maybe donate up north or in GB next time you are up/over ?

Chunky Monkey

Yup definitely doing that. There's some sort of society at the college I'm going to where you register to donate blood and bone marrow. Apparently the latter doesn't hurt as much as people say it does.

tommylizard

was just on to the IBTS and the story is -

cocaine - you should wait at least a year before donating blood,

ectasy - you should give it at least 2 weeks or so,

any type of injecting and you can forget about it.

Chunky Monkey

Just checked the IBTS website and if you lived in the UK for a year or more between 1980 and 1996 you're excluded from being allowed to donate indefintely.

BanzaiBk

Bone marrow extraction is horrendously painful! I had to do it once, worse than a lumbar puncture imo, and I have a very high pain threshold. Pity about the indefinate ban, I donate blood regularly and the nurses always encourage me to ask my friends etc. Sorry state of affairs imo.

Kooli

I can't donate ever again because I lived in Africa for over six months. Seems such a shame when I'm ready, willing and healthy, but I guess they have to be over-cautious.

Jeapy

BanzaiBk wrote: »

Bone marrow extraction is horrendously painful! I had to do it once, worse than a lumbar puncture imo, and I have a very high pain threshold. Pity about the indefinate ban, I donate blood regularly and the nurses always encourage me to ask my friends etc. Sorry state of affairs imo.

Did they take it from the pelvis? Ive seen this done (lab worker) and the local anasthetic (sp) given should mean no pain, just pressure at the site.
Obviously, my stats aint official, but i was told at the National Blood Centre that about 2 cases of Hep B come up every year and maybe 1 HIV. Syphillis is uncommonly (i THINK they said about once every 4 years or more) found because of the screening process...ie, the way they eliminate people from the donation process. If these figures rise, it means theres a problem in the questionnaire and it has to be changed.

DrIndy

the bone marrow itself is ok if the area is numbed throughly - which is usually possible - however, it always hurts to suck that small bit of marrow out to diagnose whats going on as the numbing is superficial and you are sucking out deeply....

its usually only a twinge though.....

Capt'n Midnight

The odds of being asked to donate marrow is very low. Then again if someone needs a donor they'll be lucky to get one.

spurious

Certain blood pressure medication will also rule a person out of donating.