Hi everybody,

Now that many hospital Blood Banks have started doing NAT for TTDs, has it allowed you to be "more relaxed" in Donor selection ?

Or is it that you are following the old gold saying of "any history of Hepaitis after the 11th birthday" disqualifies the Donor ? and similar situations for "recent sexual exposure with a sexual worker" , "imprisonment", " homoseuality" etc etc....!

I am very curious about this..

Your inputs will be very much appreciated....

with wishes,

engeekay2003

I was always taught, and firmly believe, that the safest way to screen donors is by questionnaire. This is then backed up by the lab tests.

When faced with writing down answers people are far less likely to lie about their behaviour. Conversely the result would be 'if you don't ask I won't tell' or 'I didn't think that was relevant'. It is important to remember that the vast majority of the general public know very little 'science' & struggle to understand why we impose such rigorous checks on our donors.

In my view until we have tests that remove the 'window period' of potential infection we must continue with the donor health-check as we have always done.

Hi:

No changes in the criteria. Just added expenses of the NAT test. That said; with MSM in the news so much and the shorter window periods associated with NAT, I would not be surprised if things change soon