This reminds me of one urban legend and one question…
The first, cocaine (sorry if I ruined the show listed in the thread for anyone) stays in your system enough to be tested for something like a year. If that patient hadn’t died of overdose… instead say… a traumatic brain injury… Would they turn down her organs because a couple months ago she had used cocaine?
And a question:
If someone had AIDS would they tell the person at the time of testing (or if they found out later that afternoon, say)? I know full STD tests take several weeks to return… but blood is pretty important to get out there fast. How soon would the people at the lab know of a positive sample? Would they even tell the person who donated it?
As for blood, I don’t have any idea how long it takes to test samples, but I would be very surprized if they didn’t notify the donor that they had HIV (or hepatitis, or anything else they test for). I suppose it may vary from blood bank to blood bank, but the local San Diego blood bank would certainly inform the donor if something came up in the tests. If for no other reason, to have the donor have their blood tested again.
well im not sure about america cause I was banned from giving blood when I lived there (cause im irish?!? racists!)
but i donate whenever i can here, but on the huge list of questions you have to answer everytime (worst part really) they specifically ask if youre donating blood to get a free HIV test. so i presume they DO screen the blood
Blood clinics do rapid testing; a quick check for certain anti-bodies or other markers that indicates “positive” results in the blood/tissue being rejected for donation, and a call/letter to the donor to recommend a more accurate, more thorough testing. “Negative” results clear the blood for donation. I think, while a false positive is possible, it is highly unlikely to have a false negative result. I also think that false positive donors become banned from donation, since they just can’t afford to take any chances.
The cocaine thing: First off, if the donor had died from some injury they would have no reason to test for drugs in the first place. I don’t know for sure, but I would be very surprised if they routinely checked for that sort of thing in organ donors. Second, cocaine, IIRC, is only detectable for a few days before it is flushed from your body as it is not fat-soluble.
If your blood tested positive for any of the infectious diseases we test for then a doctor would contact you personally to report the results and possibly help in any further testing as well as treatment. To nitpick, a doctor would never call you and say “You have AIDS”, but they would inform you that you have tested positive for HIV.
We screen every unit that we collected, and testing for HIV and hepatitis (and many other diseases) usually have a 2 day turn around time. If you test positive with the screening test (usually some form of ELISA method), then we conform testing with a Western Blot test. Also, I believe it is now a fereral law that all units get NAT testing for HIV (a PCR-type of test, I think) as well, even if the screening test is negative.
When you have tested negative for all the infectious diseases we look for you will recieve a nice letter, and possibly a card, in the mail in about two weeks informing you of your blood type and also letting you know when you can donate again.
Regarding the cocaine question. I’m not a doctor, so I’m a little less sure how to answer that one. I may take a shot a little later if I can look into it a bit more. One thing I can definatively say is that yes, things in your blood that you donate can be passed on into the person being transfused. That sentence came out bad. What I mean to say is that we have seen allergic transfusion reactions. Meaning if you eating a full course of Shrimp Scampi and then go to donate soon after, if the person recieving your blood is allergic to shrimp they really can have a reaction to it.
I have a friend that states certain types of HIV are not tested for, or are tested less rigorously because of the testing available and the relative rarity of the type of HIV in the US. I am assuming she is talking about HIV-2 and HIV-1, groups N and O. Is this true? She states that the reason they exclude people who have lived in Africa is because their testing will not “catch” the prevalent types of HIV found there.
You were probably turned down because of Mad Cow. Same for me (I was in Germany in the 80’s).
Currently, donations are banned from:
• Anyone who has lived in the U.K. for three months or longer since 1980
• Anyone who has lived anywhere in Europe for six months since 1980
• Anyone who has received a blood transfusion in the U.K.
I donate blood every 8 weeks in New York. You have to give them contact information, and they tell you they will notify you if you test positive for stuff.