Who is excluded from giving blood?Follow

Who is excluded from giving blood?



I am unsure of anyone bar Nobby who could answer, but I was wondering in this news article if the following (underlined) was true



Bigotry or fact?

Even if it is fact (I don't know for certain), that statement doesn't mean much. Does it increase five-fold from 0.00000000000001%? Because while that would still be bad - any increase would be - it's a drastic difference from 1% increasing to 5%.

Any sex dramatically increases the likelihood you'll catch an STD. Funny how that works, huh?

Apparently, I can't give blood because it beats up other peoples blood.

I've been donating plasma lately. One thing they asked me is if I've been to France. I'm still not sure why they specifically ask about France.

Off the top of my head, one cannot donate if:

They've lived in or traveled to Africa since 1977.
They've traveled to Europe within the past year.
They've used needles to take drugs, ever.
They've taken or given sex for drugs, ever.
They've had homosexual intercourse with a man, ever.
They've had sex with an intravenous drug user in the past year.
They've had a tattoo in the past year.
They've had major surgey in the past year or minor surgery or a tooth extraction in the past six months.
They have insufficient protein levels.
They have experienced red blood cell loss in the past two months.
They've had intercourse with someone who was born in or lived in Africa since 1977.
They are currently under the influence of or addicted to drugs or alcohol.
They have anti-coagulate allergies.
They've been incarcerated in the past year.
They've received a blood transfusion in the past six months.
That's all I can remember.

I can't give blood in NZ because I come from the UK, and they have mad cows apparently. Even tho' I havn't had sex with a cow or even eaten bits of one for 20 years.

Suits me tho'. Most humans I've met don't deserve my blood.

The argument I've heard is that some blood donations infected with different STD's still seep through despite the testing. I think the permanant ban is stupid. They ask if you've had any unprotected sex in the last year with more than one partner and if you answer truthfully that disqualifies you. That question is enough. Gay men who practice safe sex are no more likely to get HIV than a straight person who practices safe sex. This discrimination stems from the stereotype that gay men are whores who sleep around willy nilly and don't use protection. There are some gay men who do this, but there's also straight people and lesbians who do this as well.

I'm pretty sure I can still technically give blood because I don't like coitus, and have never had that with a male, despite liking to do other things.

I was, however, strongly advised to halt giving my blood on account of being too much of a fainting pussy, as well as having a tendency not to bleed enough.

Edited, Oct 27th 2009 5:47pm by Pensive

Maybe stopping calling it 'coitus' and start thinking of it as 'shagging' might help?

I have certain.. "techniques" which have been described by some as "shagging-like."

Most likely that's because like all blood tests, there are false negatives. They figured it would be safer to just exclude anyone with a higher risk of having infected blood.




I think they still have very strict rules, even if they are desperate, because blood from one infected person will cause all the blood in that batch to be thrown out. And if it was used before it was discovered to be infected, heads will roll. It's just not worth it.