Donor Screening by Family Members

[Keystone]

How do you feel about a health history/exam being performed by a family member ? Would it compromise whether the donor is truthful? I cannot find a standard for this and I know that many donor centers do employee blood drives - so where do you draw the line? I feel that an employee would know the questions that are asked and would not donate or attempt to donate if he/she knew that there would be a reason for deferral. 

[David Saikin]

I think that you would have to validate the training of the individual performing the history/physical. Otherwise, I know of no regulation that would preclude a family member from performing such . . . I would not even mention this in your policy/procedure - only that the history/physical are performed by a trained individual.

[jmphil4]

I know of no regulation preventing this, but I've always heard directed donations may not be as safe as other volunteer donors due to pressure to donate...I'd think this would be a similar situation, people will feel pressured to not tell the truth on the donor questionaire.

[David Saikin]

 

I know of no regulation preventing this, but I've always heard directed donations may not be as safe as other volunteer donors due to pressure to donate...I'd think this would be a similar situation, people will feel pressured to not tell the truth on the donor questionaire.

 

A very valid point . . . I've seen folks receive HIV+ units because of this (decades ago). Of more concern is Hep C.

[Auntie-D]

I know of no regulation preventing this, but I've always heard directed donations may not be as safe as other volunteer donors due to pressure to donate...I'd think this would be a similar situation, people will feel pressured to not tell the truth on the donor questionaire.

then there's always the increased risk of gvhd

[SMW]

The GVHD risk would only be significant if it was a directed donation to/for a family member related to the individual performing the interview...and even if that was so, US facilities have policies to address identifying the risk associated with directed donations from related family members and taking appropriate preventative actions (irradiation).

 

I also am not aware of a specific regulation, however you may want to include in your decision process (and remembering as others have suggested that some of the early cases of transfusion transmitted HIV infection were directed donations from a child to a parent), how would you personally feel about receiving a unit of blood from a relative that had their health history performed by their close relative or even other closely associated individual?  Certainly would not be my preference............ 

[MarioUSBloodBank]

I guess a good way to prevent a contaminated blood donation due to a donor lying to a family member would be to put in the policy that family members cannot take blood or ask pre-donation questions from members of the same family but would that even be practical? Is this an issue that happens so often that the policy writer would have to make note of it?