Blood Donations

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STEINER

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I gave blood for a few years but had to stop when I had to get transfusions myself last year, once you have a transfusion you can't donate ever again. I was pleased to donate as the Board were always looking for donations. While I donated it was obvious that that the vast majority of people donating blood were Irish. With 500,000 plus immigrants here and myself living in a multicultural part of Dublin I never saw any foreigner donating blood at any school or clinic I went too. Apparently Africans can't donate here due to the whole AIDS/HIV issue.

a few points to make.

As Africans can't donate blood here and there are thousands of African immigrants living here now, is there not a case for them to donate their own blood products to the Blood Transfusion Board for their own use?

Would it make more sense to pay blood donors a small fee of 10 to 20 euro to encourage more donations? I am sure the extra cost could be recouped from the hospital end users, and anyway the nurses, doctors and admin at the mobile clinics must be on good money and expenses anyway. Certainly the head of the BTB here is on a comparable salary to his/her UK counterpart and the UK operation is very much larger with much more staff and donors than Ireland.
 
Africans aren't the only ones banned from donating blood. Anyone who lived in the UK(like myself) in the 90s is also banned. Does that mean we should have an ex emigrant blood bank, as well as one for gay people (who are also banned)? Where do you draw the line?
 
The rationale behind not paying for donations is so that drug abusers doing sell blood to get a fix. This is a problem in the USA where they do pay for blood.
I agree with Mpsox that discriminating about who can and can’t receive blood is patently unfair.
 
I too cannot give blood because of the UK rule. I find it a ridiculous rule, setting aside the fact I have been a non-meat eater for over 30 years, anyone who has eaten meat even once in the UK is potentially a cjd risk.

I thought, perhaps mistakenly, that all blood was screened anyway?

I can see a point about having separate blood banks for some, isn;t one of the main risks for African sickle cell anemia? but agree where would you draw the line.

I would love to give blood, I live in hope they will change the rule. I can however give platelets, so that is something I will have to plan as they only have donation clinics in Dublin and Cork.
 
JP1234 said:
I too cannot give blood because of the UK rule. I find it a ridiculous rule, setting aside the fact I have been a non-meat eater for over 30 years, anyone who has eaten meat even once in the UK is potentially a cjd risk.

I thought, perhaps mistakenly, that all blood was screened anyway?

I can see a point about having separate blood banks for some, isn;t one of the main risks for African sickle cell anemia? but agree where would you draw the line.

I would love to give blood, I live in hope they will change the rule. I can however give platelets, so that is something I will have to plan as they only have donation clinics in Dublin and Cork.
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Cickle cell anemia is a genetic disorder, it can't be "caught".
 
Purple said:
Cickle cell anemia is a genetic disorder, it can't be "caught".
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Oh right. I misunderstood how it was passed down, I thought it was via the blood itself and this was why they could not donate.
 
Purple said:
Cickle cell anemia is a genetic disorder, it can't be "caught".
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Purple you should have used your spell check! It's "Sickle" not cickle, or are you just trying to prove how bad a speller you are ;)
 
I also am exempted from donating blood due to the UK rule....i have a rare blood group and was getting phone calls in the UK to donate early when stocks were running low - which i would do when possible (although my last year in the UK were donation free due to severe anaemia).

I think that if i am in desperate need of a blood transfusion i would be happy to take my chances with blood from somebody who has lived in the UK, once it is screened for all major infections/viruses. Are there any cases of CJD beingg passed through blood products?
 
As Africans can't donate blood here and there are thousands of African immigrants living here now, is there not a case for them to donate their own blood products to the Blood Transfusion Board for their own use?
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This is due to the high incidence of HIV in Africa. I'm not sure that this is practical. Obviously you cant give anyone, including Africans, blood from a supply that is potentially tainted with HIV. Would require a lot of resources to set up an individual supply for each person and would also require these people to donate very regularly to keep their personal supply well stocked.
 
Back in the early 1990's when we were working in Swaziland, a call was put out for potential blood donors as a guy had been shot and needed a lot of blood. When we pitched up at the clinic we were asked for R150 each to pay for our blood to be tested prior to giving it to the patient!
 
The UK rule has got me too. I was a regular donor in the UK but when I enquired about donating here I was given a polite "no thanks".

I'd have no problem receiving screened blood from a UK donor and personally think the rule needs to be looked at again. It's quite frustrating as I'm training as an Emergency Medical Technician and encourage people to give blood. Ofcourse they expect me to be a donor and apart from anything else, it's a tad embarrassing to admit that I don't. Everyone agrees though once I explain, it's a daft rule.
 
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