blood donations

tnt1

have a friend who recently was in an accident and received donated during an operation.i was wondering what sort of testing the irish blood board do? i read on their website that they check for hep B ,HIV , but do they check for ALL other STD'S ,herpes etc.... i would presume they do test for these,but i was just wondering when i read about the scandals of the blood board http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/0112/blood.html

i know they have good procedures and practices now but i was just wondering this

nesf

To be honest, I'm fairly sure that sufficent tests go on, but in cases where it's life or death so it's a bit of a non-issue in my mind.

I wouldn't lose sleep over it.

[Jackass]

Im no expert...but i'd imagine Irish blood donations are amongst the most vigerously tested samples, because of the terrible blunders in the past. There would be very strict guidelines for this i would imagine. I wouldn't worry about it .... I hope your friend is ok btw

Gordon

I think Biology/Medicine would be more appropriate.

John

Herpes generally isn't found in blood, it infects nerve cells.

GuanYin

You have nothing to worry about.

All blood is screened and the main issues is with reporting the results back to the donors.

As it stands quite a few people have been informed they have STD's by the blood transfusion service in the last two years and while this isn't comforting, it stands to show the reporting condemned in that report is running smoothly now.

Last year a friend of my brother's died from receiving a blood transfusion which contained Yellow Jaundice. The IBTS don't test for jaundice because they consider it a non-life threatening illness, but he had cancer previously and the chemotherapy left his immune system destroyed.

I personally don't have much confidence in the IBTS.

tnt1

but my point was that i know hiv etc is tested for,but considering all other std's are not life threatening ,are these tested also?

Winning Hand

Not all STDs are blood borne. Syphylis, chlamydia, herpes, HPV, Gonorrhoea etc are all spread by direct sexual contact, not from receiving a blood transfusion.

DriftingRain

The IBTS don't test for jaundice because they consider it a non-life threatening illness, but he had cancer previously and the chemotherapy left his immune system destroyed.



This is caused by hepititis. I am sure they check for that!


~DR~

DriftingRain

DriftingRain wrote:

This is caused by hepititis. I am sure they check for that!
~DR~

Are you sure? My mother contracted yellow jaundice in 1981 but is fine, she doesn't have any form of hepatitis.

Amz

I don't think there are many people on this board who would be qualified to answer your question.

I'm sure a doctor would be a more appropriate person to ask if you have any concerns.

Talliesin

Karsini wrote:

The IBTS don't test for jaundice because they consider it a non-life threatening illness.

That's a symptom, not a disease. It can be caused by any number of things which affect the liver and/or bile duct, including hepatitis (which is tested for), alcohol abuse, gallstones, malaria, genetic diseases, cancer of the bile duct or pancreas, breastfeeding and is commonly exhibited by newborns especially if they are premature. It can range from being harmless to either being dangerous or being co-existent with dangerous symptoms or caused by an underlying disease which is dangerous. As such you can't "test for jaundice", you can test for some agents that cause jaundice - notably Hepatitis, which is indeed tested for.

DrIndy

Blood transfusions in ireland are indeed VERY vigorously screened. To such an extent that Ireland can only "borrow" blood from Holland and Canada should there be a shortfall as only they are equally stringent.

The concept of screening is there is always a failure rate, albeit small. This arises from operator error (tired and does not check every report precisely), machine error (defective machine) and sample (the part checked by sheer chance has nothing in it to report). All of these are reduced by safety mechanisms built into the system. However, by sheer bad luck, an error occurs.

Everything imaginable is screened for by the IBTS. They do this because of the dreadful fiasco over Hepatitis C scandal.

This is further reduced by careful screening of donors and this is why there are so many restrictions in ireland to donating. People are now barred from donating if they lived in britain during the BSE epidemic to reduce the chance a carrier transmits it.

By doing this you reduce the chance of something passing through the system until it is infintesimally small.

Blood received in ireland is VERY safe. Everyone please donate blood if you do not already do so. Due to the restrictions on donating, there are now much fewer eligible people available to donate, making the remaining blood more important.

Jaundice is more than meets the eye. It could be hepatitis, or it could be the breakdown of the red blood cells by the body. If there is a blood type incompatibility then you can get jaundice (there are more than just ABO and Rhesus blood types).

I am sorry for what happened to your friends brother.

NeilJ

Why is it that when giving blood if your male and have had intercourse with another man or female and had intercourse with a bisexual female you can not give blood?

Neil

aku0000

they seem to be stuck for blood lately, but if you ask me they don't want it bad enough. 'bout ten years ago they used to go around to factories and stuff and get some. they got blood and people got an extra break everyone won. now i don't know where there hiding you can't give blood even if you wan't.
maybe it's the governments fault, or the factories.

Amz

The controls they have on blood donations would have a lot to do with that. It's more time consuming, there's more bureaucracy etc. particularly for first time donors for the reasons already outlined above.

Surely anyone who follows the news would understand why these measures have been taken in recent times.

NeilJ

But does anyone know why they seem to discriminate against gay men when it comes to being a viable donor?
Neil

Nevyn

beacuse this is Ireland and it is still considered that if your gay/bi then you must be promisicous and there for are in a higher risk group.

GuanYin

Thaed wrote:

beacuse this is Ireland and it is still considered that if your gay/bi then you must be promisicous and there for are in a higher risk group.

Please back this up with something more than your opinion.

The actual reason is that the penile-anal route is by far the most effective means of HIV transmission, thus those partaking in male homosexual intercourse are the group most at risk.

It should be noted that the actual trend in new HIV cases is favouring a move towards heterosexual infections and this is most likely to to a saturation effect seen in the homosexual population.

Despite this, the screening is on a case by case risk assessment and the reasoning is above.

NeilJ

Before giving blood two questions asked are: are you a man who has had sexual intercourse with another man. are you a woman you has had sexual intercourse with a man who has had sex with other men. If you answer yes to either question you are immediately ineligible to give a blood donation. At no stage are women asked have they had anal sex nor does the questioning to men specific anal sex. Surely if as you say that is the most effective way of transmitting the virus the question should apply to both genders regardless of actual sexual preference.

Neil

DrIndy

Not quite - remember these are designed by epidemiologists, who are doctors that spend their whole time doing statistical analysis of prevalence of various diseases and conditions.

If you look ONLY at the current statistics, then there are more vaginal transmission than there are anal sex transmissions. However, if you then look at the incidence in two groups - heterosexual/homosexual, then there is still a higher incidence in the second category simply because that group is much smaller in number than the first.

As Psi said, the numbers are rising in heterosexuals.

Epidemiologists are not only concerned with a mode of transfer (anal sex) - but the groups who have a high incidence of disease as they are statistically more likely to transmit any infection.

Therefore a woman having anal (or any) sex with a heterosexual man has a much lower risk of contracting HIV than if she has sex with a gay/bi man. This is because a straight man has statistically a lower chance of being infected to begin with.

This is a bone of contention for me too. I have been campaigning for a while that the IBTS should rethink its current methods of exclusion as they were designed back in the late eighties/ early nineties when almost all HIV infection was found in gay men. This is not the same now.

I personally believe that the question should be "have you ever had unprotected anal sex" rather than simply "If male: have you had sex with another man".

However, nothing will make the IBTS change their regulations unless there is substantial data published that will support this.

GuanYin

Indy, you're right that the question should be rephrased, but the original statistics also looked at trends in sexual activity Vs. infection.This put the number of women consenting to anal sex with a casual partner as negligable enough for it not to be considered a risk. However, as times change so do trends in sexual activity and you're right it does need updating.

Fidelis

www.ibts.ie to check for your nearest donation clinic.

The site also lists where/when the mobile clinic will be.

In Dublin, there is a programme called "Work Place Donor Ferry Programme":
If you can identify a minimum of 3 colleagues who are willing to donate blood, we will collect you at your place of work and drop you back with the least possible delay.

Redshift

I happened to be doing some work in the IBTS building recently and one of their guys told me that they are using artificial blood plasma now because of BSE and all that. Obvioulsy I don't know the in's and outs of it but I think he meant that when they get a donation now the seperate all the blood cells and stuff from the donated plasma and add them to the artificial blood plasma.