Donating Blood

I was just wondering, when the say blood transfusion, does that include platelet transfusions as well?

I think they mean any blood products, so that would include platelets, IvIG etc. If there's a risk from whole blood, then there's a risk from other parts of the blood. In Canada at least, you have to wait a year after receiving any blood product to donate.

Also, one of the big issues is that there's not way to remove the variant Creutzfeld-Jacob agent and it lasts for a long time.

Lily

I thought it included platelets and ivig, but thought i'd just double check

Thanks aurehsalla I've just popped off an email to your mum with a few questions about her experiences.

I've been learning so much about everything to do with blood it's really fascinating.
The test that has been developed is a diagnostic test, it tests for vCJD to up to 71% accuracy.
According to many people the reason they haven't implemented the test is that the government is concealing the real number of people who could possibly be affected by the disease. (Although the majority of people are not affected.)

Anyone born in the UK after 1996 receives all plasma products from the USA.
We're really interested in why we even use blood here that other countries wouldn't.

And what's going to happen in a few years when everyone who is currently about 15 (ie born in 1996 and after) will be allowed to give blood. Will they gradually stop using older people's blood?

Any thoughts on the matter?

Here are a few links if people want to read more :
www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/ferguswalsh/2011/02/prototype_blood_test_for_vcjd.html
www.wave105.com/Article.asp?id=1563138&spid=25629

kmalc wrote: The test that has been developed is a diagnostic test, it tests for vCJD to up to 71% accuracy.
According to many people the reason they haven't implemented the test is that the government is concealing the real number of people who could possibly be affected by the disease. (Although the majority of people are not affected.)

I rather think that that isn't the reason it's not used. A 70% accuracy rate is just not good enough. Presumably it doesn't just mean that there are false negatives but also false positives, and just say that half the errors are of each type that means that 15% of people will be classed as vCJD positive when they aren't. Not a state of affairs that is acceptable.

The question would also arise as to whether it's immoral to withhold such a test result from the potential donors, or whether they be told along with being given the information that the test is not very accurate. Should they tell them or simply discard any blood they donate in the future? Would you want to live knowing that you may have vCJD appearing any time in the future? It's like the question of whether to tell people they have a chance of developing breast cancer, but worse, as there is no treatment whatsoever and no way to prevent it.

Anyone born in the UK after 1996 receives all plasma products from the USA.
We're really interested in why we even use blood here that other countries wouldn't.

And what's going to happen in a few years when everyone who is currently about 15 (ie born in 1996 and after) will be allowed to give blood. Will they gradually stop using older people's blood?

We use blood here because we have no alternative. IVIG which comes from the States is in short supply both here and there as there is not enough to go round. There certainly wouldn't be enough red cells or whole blood if we didn't use our own. Also some blood products like platelets have a very short shelf life and transporting it around the world would be very expensive never mind that there wouldn't be enough of it.

I don't imagine they'll stop using older people's blood, beyond the current age limits, as there is never enough. Beggars can't be choosers!

Hi, I'm new to these boards. I have ITP myself and ironically enough I work for the Red Cross, managing blood bank inventories. The reason for the deferral is multifaceted. First, ITP can be transfusion acquired. That is, the antibodies of someone with ITP can trigger the same reaction in a normally healthy person if they are transfused. There were some scientists that did some very risky tests on themselves that proved that to be true!! Secondy, there is of course the risk to your daughter. Although stable now, removing blood in quantity on purpose could trigger relapse for her. Her bone marrow already works hard to keep her levels up. Asking them to work even harder to replace what a donation would take unneceesarily taxes those megakaryocytes. Lastly, the FDA in the US requires a deferral of at least 12 months for anyone who has recieved IGIV. Even though almost all transfused IGIV is bovine derived now, the regulations stand and it's the law. That's further complicated in countries outside the US since vCJD is generally bovine related as well and is why many European countries import plasma from the US.

some blood banks do allow people who had itp to donate blood
my blood bank said that anyone that had itp pior to 13years old is currenly eligable to donate.
so im able to donate blood:woohoo:

Hello all,

I just joined the group and I happy to be part of this group.

My name is Rouzbeh Shirvani. I work as Engineer in a biotechnology company called Athelas. We are working on building a device that can reliably count platelets in less than 5 minutes with one blood drop via finger prick and give back the counts immediately. We are at the final stages of this process and submitting our application for the FDA for clearance. Right now our device returns reliable results for people with platelet counts in the range of 150,000 to 450,000 per microliter. However we have not tested the device on people with lower counts like less than 100,000 per microliter. I was wondering if anyone here knows someone specially in northern California with platelet counts lower than 100,000 per microliter that can donate their blood to us. This can be a huge help in order to finalize the validity of our device's reported platelet count.

Thanks.