Hello.
Back in 1994, I was infected with hepatitus A. My whole family caught it, and we were sick for a couple weeks.
My question is, is it O.K., now that I have recovered, to give blood? My doctor has never gave me any advice one way or the other. I would like to start giving blood again, but not if I would risk somehow infecting anyone else.
I can’t find anything specific to donating blood. However, rom what I can tell, you should be able to give blood. Hepatitis A has no chronic state, and the disease can only be transmitted by a patient with an acute infection. However, after an infection you have immunity, so that may raise some issues. I guess you’d have to ask the bloodbank for a final answer.
Browner, Jacobs, Pollak. (1998) Emergency Care and Transportation of the sick and injured, 7th ed. Jones & Bartlett: Sudbury, MA.
from: http://www.redcross.org/services/biomed/blood/learn/eligibl.html
Hepatitis or Jaundice
Persons who have had hepatitis (inflammation of the liver) caused by a virus or unexplained jaundice (yellow discoloration of the skin)since age 11 are not eligible to donate blood. Accept persons who had jaundice or hepatitis due to something other than a viral infection such as medications, Gilbert’s disease, bile duct obstruction, alcohol, gallstones or trauma to the liver.
Persons who have tested positive for hepatitis B or hepatitis C are not eligible to donate, even if they were never sick or jaundiced from the condition.
Hepatitis Exposure
Wait 12 months after close contact with someone who has hepatitis. (Close contact is defined as sexual contact or sharing the same household, kitchen, dormitory, or toilet facilities).
Wait 12 months after detention in a correctional institution or residence in a long-term psychiatric institution.
Wait 12 months after receiving a blood transfusion, blood injections, tattoo, non-sterile needle stick/body piercing or blood exposure to non-intact skin or a mucous membrane.
Wait 12 months following human bite if it broke the skin.
Wait 12 months after using intranasal cocaine or any other street drug.
Hepatitus? Or is it Hepotatoes? …
I know because my mother had hepatitis in the 80’s. However, your question says a lot about you. You’ve asked a health question not to benefit yourself, but to know if you can help other people.
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