Donating Blood?

[Baxter]

So with the new DAA treatments, and people being declared "cured," will there be any change in the rules regarding blood donations? I used to be a regular donor before I got sick, and I miss being able to do that. It would be nice to be able to do that again.

Anyone know?

[gnatcatcher]

Baxter, if my hepatologist has anything to do with it, the rules won't change. After I was cured, I asked him about donating blood. He said that even if my HCV antibodies become undetectable (which happens for a few people) and therefore I could get away with donating, he hoped I wouldn't because it's estimated that any blood donation has a 1 in a million chance of containing HCV, but mine would have a 1 in 150,000 chance because of my prior infection.

You're far from the only person on these forums to mention missing not being able to donate blood. If it interests you, you may be able to donate your body (when you no longer need it) to a medical school. I had signed the papers well before I found out I had HCV, so I asked the hepatologist about that, too, and he said their medical school would take my corpse even if I still had HCV because the formaldehyde takes care of the risk.

Apologies if the previous paragraph strikes anyone reading this as ghoulish. Anatomical donation has become the tradition in my family; it's wonderful to hear how helpful medical students find it to explore a real body (nobody's organs look exactly like the pictures in their textbooks, the bones in the ear are so tiny, etc.). Today's medical students are encouraged to think about what life must have been like for the person whose body shows signs of various ailments, so they may become more empathetic doctors as a result.

Gnatty

[Lynn K]

Really it comes down to costs and control for the blood banks. Our blood will still test positive so if they were to allow they would have to sequester our donation after it tests positive for antibodies and then have the more expensive HCV RNA test done and ensuring our donation is not accidentally sent out for use while waiting for the results to return.

Imagine what would happen if they accidently allowed a hep c virus infected donation out for infusion. So it just really is not practical for the blood banks to accept our donations.

Just to add we can do organ donations. For example say your liver or kidneys are still in good shape when you die. A patient who either has or had hep c and has liver or kidney failure would be allowed to receive your donated organs. I guess this would also apply to corneas etc.

So even though we can't donate blood we can still save lives