Just remember, that while you feel like a hero when you attend a blood donation drive, in order for all of your blood components to be used, you do need to be a regular donor - that means that you need to donate at least three times a year (you can donate every 52 days, so that pretty much makes for a maximum of six donations a year). See blood donor drives as an opportunity to start achieving regular donor status as opposed to a once-off contribution.
14 June is World Blood Donor Day; if you're able to donate, give your pint. The SANBS website (www.sanbs.org.za) lists fixed donor sites and mobile drives.
Blood is composed of several different elements, namely red cells, plasma and platelets, each of which fulfils a particular function. These can be used for specific purposes so that each unit of blood can be used for more than one patient. The more regularly you donate, the better the chance of your donated unit getting used for all components.
SANBS has found that its regular donors are its safest donors. These people are familiar with the danger of the window period and they know what risk behaviour entails. They have been through all SANBS’s education processes.
If you are donating blood for the first time, your red blood cells won’t get used. Your plasma gets quarantined until your next donation. If all tests come back negative after your second donation, the quarantined plasma from your first donation will be used. This also applies if you haven’t donated blood for a while.
Once you have made three donations and your blood still tests negative for sexually transmissible diseases, all the components of your blood gets used. You have to donate blood regularly!
1 comment:
Over on the other side of the planet it is only once every 12 weeks to a max of 4 times a year.
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