Back in '96, I donated some blood and was told I got a false positive on an HIV test, which meant I was PERMANENTLY banned (I confirmed this again yesterday) from further blood donation. I am told also that my name went into a national database of banned donors as a result, and the only way to get out of it is to go through a requalification process that my local blood bank does NOT participate in. They told me it’s an FDA rule.
OK fine, I understand further testing, but being told in this time of near hysteric patriotism that your blood isn’t wanted when it could be used with a little work seems downright silly.
I suppose I should add that this isn’t bothering me nearly as much as it is my somewhat paranoid spouse, who is worried this “confidential” database might somehow become known to an insurer who would refuse me on the basis of a “positive” HIV test.
Any comments or suggestions? And yes, I’ve had 2 more negative tests since then.
When testing or screening blood for diseases the are usually several different tests. Because of the cost-per-test laboratories will often use a cheap test with a high false positive rate. IF you get a positive you can the goto a expensive but 100% accurate test.
I’m going to assume that your blood, because it once caused a false positive on the cheap test, is no longer cost effective to process.
There is no national crisis that demands we use every pontential doner, and we have plenty of blood at this time. You most also consider the possible lawsuit angle. What slimey lawyer wouldn’t love to get his hands on a case where the red cross used blood from a person who had a positive HIV test (even a flase positive).
Thanks for the reply, but I found several things amusing in this whole episode:
The lawsuit comment seems to indicate, for example, that because I failed my driver’s test twice, that I never should have been allowed on the road. I after all did legitimately fail that test.
Actually, I really can’t think of a parallel to this in any other area in the real world. In any case I can imagine, once you realize the intial test results are proven wrong, you change your records.
Maybe there is enough blood right now, but that seems to be a pretty rare situation around here, especially given the fact I’m B-, which is the type of about 1.5% of the population, making it the second rarest blood type.
A B negative person can recieve blood from a O Negative or a B negative person. In a life or death emergency they could even recieve blood from a O positive or B positive person, but this is rare because we have enough blood generally.