I just was pointed to an article about how there is some disagreement about whether blood donation centers should require that men answer the question “have you ever had sex with a man?”
The ostensive purpose is to prevent homosexuals from donating, since according to the argument they are more likely to have AIDS.
This made me wonder, a bit worriedly–does this mean that blood donations are not tested for diseases?
Umm… do I need to be creating my own private blood bank or something?
-FrL-
The American Red Cross documents what they test blood for here. Other agencies likely have similar policies. The certainly don’t rely on what the donors tell them.
But I believe the issue is that recent HIV infection may not cause a positive test result for up to 12 months, so better safe than sorry.
In some cases, the Red Cross also asks region-specific questions. For example, I gave blood Friday at a school blood drive. Because students come from all over PA, the RC had to screen out people who have eaten at a specific restaurant that was the source for hepatitis A. Now, I’ve never been to Beaver County in my life, but I’m sure there were some people who have, so the RC had to ask. NBD.
Robin, a proud type A+ donor.
I donate frequently at the Red Cross, and they always hand me a sheet that explains the kind of testing they do and what they do with the results of that testing. I don’t pay much attention to it anymore, so I won’t try to quote, but they look for HIV, hepitits, and other things. If they get a positive, it explains how they would get in touch with you.
I think the reason for the questions is to screen out people who are likely to have these diseases, in order to reduce the cost of testing - or rather, reduce the risk of taking blood from someone who’s likely not to pass.
Whenever they ask me “have you ever given money or drugs to someone to have sex?” I want to say “no - I used a coupon”
But I don’t think they would think it’s funny.
If you’re going to be having surgery in the near future and blood will be required, you can have your own blood banked by the hospital for use. IIRC this is called an “autologic” donatiion. I don’t know what the hospital does with the blood if it’s not used for the donor’s operation; one would hope it would be used for another patient if it’s otherwise suitable.
I did this for anticipated surgery, and was told the blood was discarded if you didn’t use it mostly because it has not been screened or tested for disease.
Obviously autologous donation does not need any screening; you’re hardly likely to worry about giving yourself a disease that you already have, but it might not be safe for someone else. In addition, there are a number of situations that make one forever ineligible to donate blood to others – prior chemotherapy for cancer, for example – that would obviously make no difference if you’re donating for only your own use.
Apart from cost, there is the matter of no test being 100% effective in detecting disease.
If you can screen out high risk donors, you can lower the already tiny risk of infected units getting into the blood supply.
Some people think there’s no harm in lying to blood banks about their risk factors, simply in order to be tested.
They’re wrong.
Here in the UK all blood donations are tested for just about everything under the sun. However, the blood transfusion people make it clear (in the literature and in person) that they strongly discourage people from coming to give blood just to get tested or as a ‘cheap’ way to find out if they are HIV positive.
I’m a man, and they do ask the ‘Have you had sex with another man?’ question. The jokey reply is, ‘No, and how did you find out about the first one?’.
I did this. They threw it out, and I got charged $200 for “storage fees.” I was not happy.