The blood bank where I used to donate when I was in high school told me that I was CMV negative, and they would put my blood in a chain of itty-bitty bags that they told me were for newborns. Red Cross has never shown any interest in this information. What does it mean?
It explains things here:
http://www.psbc.org/medical/transfusion/bcrm/section_d/_frm/frm_p7_cmv_negative.htm
I don’t know why Red Cross isn’t interested. Maybe you aren’t anymore?
CMV = cytomegalovirus. Being CMV negative means that you’ve never been infected with the virus.
A quick search of WebMD suggests that CMV is responsible for a wide array of diseases including gastroenteritis, mononucleosis, and pneumonia. Looking at the search results, it would seem that CMV infection is a significant risk for AIDS patients, which suggests that it’d be a problem for newborns, whose immune systems aren’t especially strong.
Several years ago, a blood bank worker told me that a significant percentage of the adult population (in the 40-60% range IIRC) is positive for CMV, rendering their blood unsuitable for newborns (and probably AIDS patients, too).
3waygeek posts:
[nitpick]
Actually, including mononucleosis is not really correct. The disease called Mononucleosis is caused by the Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV). CytoMegaloVirus (CMV) and EBV are both members of the Herpes family of viruses. CMV can cause a mono-like illness, but does not really cause mono itself.
[/nitpick]
Viruses in this family share the common trait of causing lifelong, and usually latent, infections in their hosts. Thus, once infected with CMV, always infected with CMV (or at least safer to assume always infected with CMV.) For most children over 1 year of age, and most adults, becoming infected with CMV is not a big deal - they may feel unwell for a few days to a few weeks, a small precentage may develop a more severe illness for a few weeks (Like mononucleosis), but ultimately their immune systems are able to control the CMV infection, and the CMV lives within the white blood cells, but does not actively replicate or cause significant problems.
Newborns do not, however, have a fully developed immune system, and CMV can cause them more severe problems, including retinal damage (possible blindness), pneumonia, and destruction of their adrenal glands which can be fatal, and which would require lifelong supplementation with steroids. Anyone, including HIV-infected persons, or transplant patients on immunosuppressive therapy, with an immune system which is not fully functional is at risk for more severe complications from a new or re-activated CMV infection.
To answer ENugent, I would guess that the reason the Red Cross doesn’t seem to care is that they collect all blood in the same manner, and then, after testing for CMV, split your blood into newborn-sized portions if it still tests negative. In other words, it may not matter at all to the people collecting your blood now, but did at another donor center at another time.
Sometimes, blood collection centers do make a big fuss over certain categories of donors, like CMV-negative, or O-negative, or other antibody-negative donors in the hopes of making the donor feel special, or that his blood is particularly valuable, thereby creating an increased motivation to donate regularly. This is well-intentioned, and probably does work to a certain extent, but often backfires when people go to a different donor center & don’t get that special treatment & end up feeling less valued. The bottom line is that with advances in technology, more patients are needing more blood, and the number of donors isn’t keeping up with the demand for blood. Your blood is needed, whether it’s for a preemie, a child being treated for leukemia, a teenager injured in a car crash, or an adult having heart bypass surgery or a hip fracture stabilized. Your blood is needed, and you should still feel special for giving the gift of life.
I’m also CMV negative, and my blood bank only mentioned it once. They don’t make a particular fuss, though they do call me up everytime I’m eligible to donate again.
I had the impression that the blood is used for all sorts of people with reduced immunity, which includes AIDS patients as well as newborns. So I think they may have collected CMV- blood mainly for babies in the past, but they now collect it in normal units so that it can be used by immunosuppressed adults. If they need to use that unit on a child, they can probably divvi it up on the spot.
Maybe it’s also done this way because there’s a chance you’ve been exposed to CMV since your last donation, so they want to test to be sure before packaging it differently.
[tangent]Our local blood center puts up billboards referring to blood donation as “The only lifesaving technique that involves eating cookies.”[/tangent]
So, when was the last time you gave up a pint?