Blood donation and safety

Safety for blood donors

In most cases, people can donate blood without experiencing any ill effects. However, there are rare cases in which doctors advise against blood donation, to safeguard the donor’s health. The questionnaire and the information sheet help clarify these situations. Equally important is the interview with a member of the medical staff, in conjunction with which pulse, blood pressure and haemoglobin count are checked (haemoglobin is the pigment in red blood cells).

In addition, the actual collection of the blood is supervised by an experienced medical practitioner. Sterile, single-use materials are used to ensure that no one can catch a dangerous illness during a blood donation.

Along with the information about blood pressure and pulse, a small sample of blood collected before the actual donation provides reliable information about the health of the individual who wants to donate. If the values are not satisfactory, a donation must be considered inadvisable.

Safety for blood recipients

There are dangerous diseases, such as HIV or hepatitis, that can be transmitted by a blood transfusion. Thus, a thorough assessment of the donor is essential before any blood donation. Another crucial aspect of patient protection is donors’ awareness of their own responsibility to answer the questions asked of them truthfully.

A residual risk remains

A false response given during the assessment of eligibility to donate can have serious consequences for patients. This is because there is no way to verify that blood is 100% safe, even though every single unit of donated blood is tested for any pathogens in the laboratory. This is due to what is known as the diagnostic window, or window period, which is the length of time between an infection and the point at which the pathogens or antibodies can be detected in a laboratory.

The window period for hepatitis B, for instance, is around 15 days. Thus, by going to donate blood during the first 15 days after being infected with the virus, a person would be endangering the life of someone else, because no tests can detect the infection the during this period. In the case of HIV, the window period is six days.

However, thanks to the many safeguards in place, such as the donor questionnaire and interview and the tests performed before blood collection, experts say that the risk of being infected with a disease like HIV hepatitis through a transfusion is significantly lower than, for example, the risk of being struck by lightning.