Donating blood and platelets

therookiefal

I am getting mixed information from the irish blood transfusion board about if I can donate platelets. When I went in to JAmes's this morning, I had mistakenly told them that I had spent 4 months in rural guatemala (When I say mistakenly, I do not mean that I had meant to lie, but that I incorrectly thought I had spent 4 months in Guatemala) when I had actually only spent 84 days. I was excluded from donating permenantly due to the risk assocaited with chagas.

The nurse and doctor could see that I really wanted to donate platelets, and upon finding out that I had only spent 84 days in Guatemala when I got home, I rang them back to check can I donate as I had been there for less than 3 months.
The nurse replied that if I had been in rural Guatemala for more than 4 week, I could not donate. I would have left it there, but I felt I heard something in her voice that made me feel like she was lying to me. I can understand why they might lie to me, if they felt that I would lie myself to donate platelets, but I do have documentary evidence of flights tickets etc that proves that I was only there for 84 days. So, I rang the IBTS helpline and they told me that if I have lived there for more than 6 months, I am permenantley excluded from donating. So therefore I should have been able to donate anyway?!

The long and short of it is, I know how important platelets are, and I want to donate. I have no intention of lying, as I know that those who are receiving my platelets further down the line need to know they are clean, but all I want to know is how can these exclusion criteria change depending on who you talk to, and what are the actual time periods.

Vorsprung

Don't you have to have donated a certain number of times before they'll take platelets from you?

The whole not being able to donate thing for a year after travel to certain countries is a pain in the arse. Was in a malarial area in Laos last May, so counting down the days until I can a big spear in my arm.

therookiefal

as long as you have donated blood before, you can donate platelets. I'm gutted that I can't donate.

Vorsprung

I stand corrected

UniversalBlack

This is the most relevant thread I suppose....
This might be a bit off topic,
I donated blood last week and I felt that with all the money the government receives from VRT and VAT on cars and massive tax on booze and smokes:mad:-could they not give some sort of tax relief or tax incentives to good blood-giving people like myself, which in turn would encourage MORE people to do the same good thing, and give blood/platelets.
It would be good for ALL people :)without being an out-and-out mercenary operation scandal.
What do ye think?

Capt'n Midnight

UniversalBlack wrote: »

This is the most relevant thread I suppose....
This might be a bit off topic,
I donated blood last week and I felt that with all the money the government receives from VRT and VAT on cars and massive tax on booze and smokes:mad:-could they not give some sort of tax relief or tax incentives to good blood-giving people like myself, which in turn would encourage MORE people to do the same good thing, and give blood/platelets.
It would be good for ALL people :)without being an out-and-out mercenary operation scandal.
What do ye think?

no we don't want to go down that way like in the US when junkies get paid for blood

anyway you got free crisps and biscuits and cans and stuff , do you want to pay BIK on those

you can also get two hours free parking in Fleet Street

and pens and stickers and other crap



How about we include blood in the opt-out donor card scheme ??

Vorsprung

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

How about we include blood in the opt-out donor card scheme ??

Can't give clotted blood!

Agree with you, payment for blood is a bad idea. The extra cost dealing with all the extra diseased blood would be significant.

DrIndy

its illegal to offer a financial incentive for a donation - but compensation such as for travel expenses and for time lost from work are acceptable.

It does set an ugly precendent to pay people - they will subsequently take up fake IDs and donate too often rendering themselves sicker and encourages risk groups such as drug users into the supply chain.

Remember that the blood screening system is a system only and it breaks down, one dodgy assay in 1000 means that if that batch happens to contain one HIV positive blood pool, its now slipped past and infected people

You need extra layers, remove at risk groups and then screen continuously and then restrict application of blood donation to essential procedures only to reduce risk even further.

therookiefal

would have to agree with the off topic sentiments. Cash for donations is a dangerous road to go down. Compensation for travel is fine, but when you get into cash for blood, it becomes all to easy to tick a box on a sheet that says you have not got a tattoo in the last 6 months, or been in central america for more than 3 months etc.....but back to the original post...?