Question

EXERCISE 13.3 A 15-year-old girl would like to donate blood for her relative. She weighs 108 lb. Her temperature and hemoglobin are within acceptable limits. 1. Is she an eligible directed donor? 2. If she were donating for herself for a planned surgery, could she donate? 3. What are some of the issues surrounding directed donations? EXERCISE 13.4 An 18-year-old student donated for the first time at a blood drive at his high school. 1. Concerned that he may have contracted HIV before the donation, what instructions should he follow to prevent his unit from being transfused? 2. Why are questions regarding HIV important even when tests are performed to detect the virus? EXERCISE 14.5 Previous testing on a donor’s computer record indicates CMV antibody–negative. The most recent donation demonstrates that antibodies are currently present. 1. Can the donor still donate? 2. Why has the CMV antibody test result changed? 3. What patients require the transfusion of CMV-reduced-risk blood products? 4. What alternatives exist in the provision of CMV antibody–negative blood?

Answer 1

1. no a person before 18 years of age and weight less than 45 kg cannot donate blood

2. she can donate the blood for herself only when-1. she has a rare blood group not available with the blood bank. 2 when it is a surgical procedure with high risk of blood loss

3. blood donation and transfusion comes with its own risks- a. transfusion related problems which includes anaphylactic reactions, febrile reaction, acute lung injury, etc.

b. chances of HLA sensitisation are also present

c. blood transfusions when not performed properly may lead to mishaps like mismatch transfusion(clerical error), congestive heart failure(fast trasfusions), hypothermia (improper procedure )

d. chances of spread of infections via the blood transfusion like HIV, Hepatitis ,CMV etc.

4. a and b- HIV can spread via the blood transfuions. it is performed as a routine test at the time of blood donation and thus spread of the disease via transfusion is limited. what may hapen rarely is that the peron donating has a very low viral load or may not have dveloped antibodies to the HIV antigen yet. (window period). when we test patients who donate blood, we usually check for antibodies agaist the virus and in the above cases it may be missed or false negative. thus a separate history is taken to double check and perform other tests if deemed necessary.

if the person who has donated the blood feels so, he should immediately contact the facility at which he donated blood and demand more sensitive ad specific tests

5. just an overview since 4 q can be answered. - CMV is a very commo infection that people can get. usually all th people have faced the virus smetime or other and thus they have antibodies for the same in their system, thus it is not a very abnormal finding. what needs to be ensured is that th antibodies are of IGG tye and not IGM. IGG indicates previous infection and the antibodies are present in the blood for a long time . IGM indicates recent infection and such a person needs to refrain from donating