Blood donation

An evaluation of three new rapid diagnostic test kits for human immunodeficiency virus types 1 and 2 (HIV-1/2), hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), and syphilis involved a two-phase comparison of rapid diagnostic assays using prospectively collected from hospitals and clinics in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. After specificity and sensitivity testing, three new rapid diagnostic test kits were tested in parallel with six commonly used diagnostic test kits. The Determine HIV-1/2 test had fewer indeterminate or equivocal results than the Capillus HIV-1/HIV-2 or HIV Blot 2.2 tests. However, the Determine HIV-1/2 test yielded one false-positive result when compared with the Serodia HIV, HIV Blot 2.2, and microparticle enzyme immunoassay (IMx) HIV tests. The Serodia HBsAg test yielded more false-negative results when compared with the Determine HBsAg diagnostic test kit. The results of the syphilis diagnostic tests evaluated in this clinical trial consistently agreed with those of the rapid plasma reagin test for syphilis. The Determine Syphilis Treponema pallidum (TP) test had three false-positive results compared with the Serodia TP and the Serodia TP•particle agglutination (PA) tests, which had two false-positive results that were confirmed as negative by an ELISA. Application of these serologic tests within this comparative evaluation framework, using the World Health Organization alternative testing strategies, proved to be an effective way to determine serostatus related to HIV, hepatitis B, and syphilis.

In 2015, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) changed their indefinite deferral policy towards donors who were men who had sex with men (MSM). I develop an empirical case for the current, revised MSM deferral policy and show that rights-based objections fail. This empirical case, however, misleadingly accounts for an elevated risk for MSM donors because it lumps two distinct kinds of MSM donors into the same category. Building on some recent work that has been published since the revision, I introduce and defend a distinction between MSM donors who have what I call 'exact justification' and those who have what I call 'ordinary justification'. MSM donors with exact justification present no risk with respect to the deferral and should be allowed to donate. I conclude by addressing a practical issue about how primary partner testimony is not enough to create exact justification , but it is enough to sustain it.

Hemopoietic stem cells can be used from bone marrow or blood or umbilical cord blood of matched siblings or appropriately matched unrelated volunteers. Today, large bone marrow registries have been established to help identify volunteer unrelated bone marrow donors for patients lacking a family donor. Despite there being almost 10 million registered potential bone marrow donors (PBMD) worldwide, only 50% of white patients have a suitable bone marrow match. Growth in the number of PBMD increases the likelihood of finding a compatible donor for a patient. The attitudes and knowledge of 250 registered PBMD and 315 not registered PBMD toward bone marrow donation, tissues and organs donation, and blood donation were surveyed, using a questionnaire with 27 items. Multivariate logistic regression identified gender (females more often than males), regular blood donation, having a relative or a friend who has already been registered as PBMD, having a relative or a friend who needs bone marrow transplantation, family discussion about tissue and organ donation, knowledge about bone marrow transplantation, information about bone marrow transplantation, and trust in health professionals were independent predictive factors influencing people's decision to register as PBMD.

The glycoprotein hormone erythropoietin is an essential viability and growth factor for the erythrocytic progenitors in the bone marrow. Tissue hypoxia is the main stimulus for the synthesis of the hormone in the kidneys and the liver. Endogenous erythropoietin and recombinant human erythropoietin (rHu-EPO) are similar with respect to their biological and chemical properties except for some microheterogeneities in their 4 carbohydrate chains. Generic products and alternatives to rHu-EPO are in development. Renal anemia can be corrected by rHu-EPO in a dose-dependent and predictable way without major side effects apart from a possible increase in arterial blood pressure. The optimal target hematocrit still needs to be defined. There are rare reports of antibody formation towards rHu-EPO in humans. Patients suffering from non-renal anemias may also benefit from the prescription of rHu-EPO. The drug has been approved for treatment of tumor patients with platinum-induced anemia. The cost-effectiveness and medical justification of the administration of rHu-EPO in tumor patients with respect to its positive effects on tumor oxygenation, tumor growth inhibition and support of chemo-and radiotherapy is still a matter of debate. In surgical patients, the pharmacological application of rHu-EPO can increase the yield of blood units in autologous blood donation programs and lower the severity and duration of postoperative anemia, if applicated some days prior to surgery. While rHu-EPO is a godsend in medical practice, its abuse as an performance enhancing drug by athletes in endurance sports is an unethical and potentially dangerous procedure. Unequivocal methods for detection of rHu-EPO doping still need to be established. studies of the pathophysiology and pharmacology of EPO . In all likelihood, rHu-EPO is today the best selling drug in the world (estimated sales 5,000 millions US $ per year).

This is a cross-sectional descriptive study where the researchers attempted to establish the respondents' willingness to blood donation. An interview schedule was devised in order to survey the information needed in this research undertaking. Four hundred forty six (446) individuals aged 18 to 65 years participated in this study. The researchers administered the interview to the randomly selected individuals who conformed to the informed consent required from each barangay. The head of the household was preferred to be the interviewee. Data collected were recorded in a spreadsheet and uploaded in Stata MP version 14. Descriptive statistics were generated and survey data analysis module was used in estimating the proportions required.

The aging of the US population and the evidence that only about 5% of individuals in the United States donate blood each year raise concerns about the assurance of an adequate, safe supply of blood in the future. Blood donation decision making has been investigated worldwide for decades to understand the process better to increase donation efficiency, safety, retention, collection numbers, and diversity of the donor pool. This review focuses on the characteristics of allogeneic blood donors, the motivational sources in donor decision making, and the research concepts and techniques used to examine these factors. Some historic studies considered pivotal, as well as more recent surveys, may not be pertinent to or representative of the current national donor pool. Interpretation of data related to donor characteristics should examine whether demographics mir-ror the donor pool to assist in targeted recruitment or if targeted recruitment actually leads to the reported demographics. Few recent studies of donor motivation have been published. Modern sources of positive and negative motivation are worth exploring through scientifically sound investigations involving representative cohorts using multifactorial approaches. Strategies that focus on retaining return donors and transforming firsttime donors into repeaters would be beneficial. Investigations are needed also to assess research questions and to develop well-designed interventions to test hypotheses and to produce generalizable findings applicable to future donor decision making. Copyright 2002, Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.

A total of 542 blood donors from Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (Lasuth), Ikeja, were interviewed with questionnaires on their knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and motivations about blood donations. It was found that a large number of them (92Á9%) donated because of the benefits they will obtain from the hospital. Such benefits include antenatal registration (67Á1%) and saving the lives of relations (25Á8%). Even though many of the donors are educated (98Á9%), majority of whom have university degrees (36Á1%) and have heard about blood donation before, 52Á4% of them believe they can contact human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and/or hepatitis infection from blood donation. A good number (47Á0%) are afraid of what they regard as side effects, such as weight loss (23Á8%), sexual failure (5Á9%), high blood pressure (5Á2%), sudden death (3Á3%), and convulsion (1Á47%). About 41Á0% prefers certificates as an incentive for donation, whereas 13Á6% prefers money; less than 3% will like their names announced or published on the media and 2Á58% will donate for nothing. It is recommended that an intensive blood donation campaign should be maintained. This will allow people to be well informed, turning the positive attitude of saving life through blood donation to a regular practice.

The increasing development of Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) paradigm has brought a reduction in the cost of software development and increased its speed, resulting in quality improvement and constant evolution. Examples of applications that greatly enhance this area are geographic information systems (GIS). They permit the allocation of raw data or processed information in a map, allowing contextualization of the information itself and knowledge extrapolation. The transfusion medicine is an excellent area of health in which one can use a GIS to display the geographic distribution of blood donors on the map. A FLOSS GIS is feasible in this context thus reducing the high governmental costs in Health Care Area. The information can be easily displayed without copyrights and other complications. For these reasons, we decided to develop a platform that allows the display of information relative to the blood donations. Our goals focused on: researching the state of the art off current status; data manipulation and processing of the donor's database; and modelling and developing a program that could show a varied option of queries that can be done to the database. We used some statistic approach to the data as well as software implementation. After its completion, it was possible to calculate the distribution of blood donors and cross reference this with the places of collect. The distribution of the donors by group or area was made visible for interpretation purposes. Ultimately, the feasibility of such systems is proved and the changes in blood donation management can represent an important improvement towards good care.

Depuis 20 ans, le dispositif mis en place pour assurer la sécurité sanitaire en matière de transfusion sanguine n'a jamais cessé de se renforcer. Il repose sur la sélection clinique et épidémiologique des candidats au don, la sélection biologique des dons et diverses techniques physico-chimiques visant la réduction ou l'inactivation des agents transmissibles présents dans les produits sanguins. En France, ce dispositif est renforcé par l'affirmation du caractère volontaire et bénévole du don du sang inscrit dans la loi du 4 janvier 1993. La sélection des candidats à un don de sang est structurée en trois étapes successives. La première étape est l'information pré-don. La seconde étape commence par la lecture et la rédaction d'un info-questionnaire qui préparent à un entretien avec un médecin orienté vers la prévention des incidents et des accidents transfusionnels et la prévention d'une intolérance au prélèvement de 400 à 600 mL de sang total ou de ses composants. Enfin, la troisième étape consiste en la remise d'une information post-don qui invite le donneur à contacter l'établissement français du sang en cas d'événement survenu après le don ou de remise en cause de ses réponses au cours de l'entretien médical.

O presente trabalho monográfico analisou o tema a “(In) Constitucionalidade da doação de sangue por homossexual masculino: Direito Individual versus Interesse Coletivo”. Considerando a existência de normas que disponham quanto às políticas e procedimentos de doação de sangue no Brasil, normas essas que no intento de proteger os doadores e receptores do material coletado, exclui permanentemente – do ponto de vista prático – os homossexuais do sexo masculino (HSH) de realizarem a doação. Tal restrição se dá num cenário em que a comunidade homossexual ainda vive com a marginalização empregada pela crise da AIDS na década de 1980, a qual reformulou todo o sistema relativo a integridade do sangue. Dessa forma, ao limitar de forma expressa o voluntário homossexual à doação deixa clara a possibilidade de cerceamento de direitos básicos humanos. A partir desse ponto, que se confronta a existência de violação de direitos constitucionais, com as normas editadas
Palavras-chaves: Doação de Sangue. Homossexualidade. Ação Direta de Inconstitucionalidade. Direitos Humanos.

The present monographic work analyzed the theme to "(In) Constitutionality of the blood donation by masculine homosexual: Individual Right versus Collective Interest". Considering the existence of norms that they have regarding the policies and procedures of donation of blood in Brazil, norms that in the attempt to protect the donors and recipients of the material collected, permanently excludes - from the practical point of view - the male homosexuals (MSM ) to make the donation. Such a restriction occurs in a scenario in which the homosexual community still lives with the marginalization employed by the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, which reformulated the whole system concerning blood integrity. Thus, by expressly limiting the homosexual volunteer to the donation makes clear the possibility of curtailing basic human rights. From this point on, the existence of violation of constitutional rights is confronted with the edited norms.

Blood donations have helped patients with life-threatening diseases and live longer with better quality of life. Blood
donations also support many complex medical and surgical procedures as they also play an essential life-saving role in caring
for children and mothers, especially during times of natural or man-made emergencies around the world.

Automation systems and information technology can greatly help medical facilities to improve their working efficiency and optimize the whole workflow. This article surveys electronic information management in blood donation and transfusion service, and explores the rationale and archetype of blood bank information systems, then exemplifies a successful in-running system—Sistema Integrado de Bancos de Sangue (SIBAS), which is developed by the Institute of Systems and Computer Engineering of Macau (INESC-Macau) in cooperation with the Macau Blood Transfusion Center (CTS-Macau). Its implementation and the related lessons are briefly introduced too. In essence, this article is oriented to serve as a reference of contemporary blood bank information systems.

This thesis describes “Blood kin”, a mobile application built on the Android platform that provides Social Location-based services for finding blood donors and blood bank centres.
Blood is the fuel of life and despite in all advances in Technology and medicine an alternative medical way to substitute
Blood, blood components or blood-derived products have not been found yet. Blood can only be supplied by living donors.
Medical crises emerge whenever or any place. During medical crises, a blood transfusion might be required to treat patients. The hospitals and clinics, particularly in our locales, discover that it is hard to get blood promptly, particularly of negative blood and rare types. The issue is increasingly serious when life is lost because of the inaccessibility of blood supply. To resolve this, few systems have been proposed by different Authors; wherein the blood donor contact information is kept up by a few organizations or blood donation centres. However, these solutions were not sufficient, as it provides a list of donors based on the static contact location of the donors, as provided during registration. Whereas in a real synopsis, the real area of the donor could be far from the patient's location. This thesis proposes a system for dynamically locating the nearest donors for blood provisions. The system tracks the area of donors (volunteers) through the Global Position System (GPS) and provides the requestor or health centres to seek the closest donors based on their exact location at the critical moment. This proposed system gives a solid technique for finding Blood patrons, particularly around the regions as to find where few blood banks or donors are available.
Blood Gift and Blood Transfusion Services (BTS) are crucial for protecting people’s lives. Lately, global efforts have been initiated to utilize social media and smartphone applications to make the blood donation process more comfortable, offer additional services, and create communities around blood donation centers. Blood banks suffer a persistent shortage of blood; hence, advertisements are frequently seen on social networks and other media outlets urging healthy individuals to donate blood for patients who urgently require a blood transfusion.
This application helps people receive notifications on urgent blood donation calls, know their eligibility to give blood, search for the nearest blood centre and donors, and present a certificate of participation. It also helps establish a blood donation community.

Entende-se que os métodos formais de análise estatística de séries temporais estão bem desenvolvidos e adaptados ao estudo das dádivas de sangue. No entanto, têm sido disponibilizadas poucas ferramentas que possibilitem o estudo de um aspeto igualmente importante – a geografia destes fenómenos.

É então objetivo principal deste estágio apoiar a gestão de dádivas de sangue por parte do Instituto Português do Sangue e da Transplantação (IPST) utilizando dados geográficos. Aqui, foram identificados quatro pontos fulcrais de atuação: i) facilitar a autossuficiência em sangue; ii) obter maior especificidade na colheita; iii) fomentar uma mudança de paradigma da colheita; e iv) criar um novo modelo de relacionamento com as associações de dadores. Estrategicamente, o IPST pretende implementar a “utilização das Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação (TIC) para potenciar mudança e a modernização administrativa através da integração dos sistemas de informação (SI), aumentando-se a sua fiabilidade e interoperabilidade” onde este projeto se enquadra.

A autossuficiência de sangue a nível nacional é conseguida pela contribuição do IPST e de alguns hospitais que realizam colheitas, sendo o IPST responsável por cerca de 72% das mesmas. O IPST conta com a ajuda de associações de dadores, mas a falta de controlo e a dependência do trabalho das mesmas pode provocar constrangimentos ao instituto. Com isto, a promoção e o planeamento de brigadas e promoções de dádiva terão de passar de um controlo regional para um de âmbito nacional.

O estágio contou com duas componentes principais. Na primeira, foi disponibilizada informação ao IPST, numa plataforma WebSIG (Mapidea Location Analytics [MLA]), que permite ofácil acesso a cartografia, inquirições e análise espacial, por parte de utilizadores sem formação específica. Na segunda componente foram realizadas análises de estatística espacial e calculadas as áreas de influência dos centros fixos de dádiva de sangue de forma a perceber as dinâmicas espácio-temporais e funcionais das dádivas de sangue. Por fim realizaram-se três experimentações de um modelo de Localização-Alocação para compreender quais os locais com maior potencialidade para de futuro acolher um centro fixo de dádiva de sangue.

A disponibilização da solução MLA ao IPST cumpriu o objetivo principal deste estágio. Com a informação disponibilizada é possível, a qualquer pessoa dentro do IPST, realizar várias análises de acordo com as necessidades que existam, visualizá-las espacialmente e partilhá-las com quem for conveniente.

Non-profit organizations are constantly seeking the public's assistance in supporting the charitable causes they represent. By analyzing 40 academic journals and texts, and issuing a questionnaire to 100 Canadians, I attempt to find the lifestyles and motivations that lead to charitable giving, beyond income. The types of donations researched include monetary donations as well as medical giving, which involves donations of blood, bone marrow, and organs, as well the respondents' related habits and views. The literature reviewed herein examines social perceptions of philanthropy, society, corporate charities, religion, and medical giving, and the general motivations and implications that lead to philanthropy. This research describes the attitudes and personalities, and the perception of charity correlating to people's actual level of giving, and the factors that result in choosing to give.

New Zealand shares a common problem with other countries: a shortage of blood donors. Approximately 4% of New Zealand's total population donate blood, yet up to 20% may need to receive donated blood or blood products. However, there has been little success in accurately predicting willingness to donate blood, and greater knowledge is needed of those variables most likely to predict potential donors' behaviour, so that efforts to increase the number of blood donors can be effectively directed.

BACKGROUND: Blood donation is safe, but a small proportion of donors have delayed and/or off-site reactions that have the potential to lead to serious injury. This retrospective study sought to identify risk factors for delayed reactions (DRs).

Advances in safety of blood transfusion in clinical practice principally relate to preventing transfusion-transmitted infections (TTI). Epidemiological studies of TTI have resulted in the development, standardization, and implementation of an expanding array of immunoassays employed worldwide in routine screening of blood donated by voluntary blood donors. Exclusion of infected blood and their donors has remarkably reduced the risk of transmitting HBV, HCV, HIV-1/2, and HTLV-I/II infections. Nucleic acid tests (NAT) using enzymatic amplification of viral gene sequences have augmented the risk reduction in ''window period'' infections that are undetectable by the serological tests. Improved viral safety of transfusion therapy has led us to recognize the risk of bacterial contamination, especially in platelet concentrates stored optimally at room temperature. Besides the current effort devoted to microbial risk reduction, pathogen inactivation technologies promise reduction of the residual risk of known and emerging infectious agents. The clinical effectiveness of the foregoing measures, international harmonization/standardization of practices and procedures, and continued hemovigilance portend safest possible safety in the clinical practice of blood transfusion.

The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks,etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Product liability: The publishers cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information about dosage and application contained in this book. In every individual case the user must check such information by consulting the relevant literature.

Between 1984 and 1996, public health authorities in Israel maintained a secret policy of discarding blood donations made by Ethiopian-Israeli citizens and immigrants. Officials later attempted to justify this policy on the grounds that immigrants from Ethiopia were subject to high rates of infectious disease (especially HIV). In 1996, this led to an explosive and violent confrontation between Ethiopian-Israeli protestors and agents of the state, including police and public health authorities. This essay explores the cultural and political context of that confrontation, including the discourse of political violence which it occasioned. The conflict between Ethiopian-Israelis and the state was located within a wider set of political contexts, including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which was linked to it through a shared trope of “spilled blood” common to both. Cultural analyses which ignore this dynamic political context are in danger of seriously misrepresenting the meaning of the “Blood Affair” to its participants. At the same time, this essay also engages a critical analysis of the public health policies which led to the crisis. Public health and nationalist discourse reinforced one another at the expense of Ethiopian immigrants in general, and so-called “Feres Mura” Ethiopians in particular.

Objective: Oxidative damage has been suggested to be a contributory factor in the development and complications of atherosclerosis, and of recent the beneficial effects of antioxidants against some pathologies have gained considerable interest. We evaluated the protective effects of flavonoids from Garcinia kola seeds on the oxidation of human low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and their ability to scavenge reactive oxygen species (ROS) in vitro. Setting: Methods: Human low-density lipoprotein (LDL) was prepared from fresh blood donated by volunteers with informed consent. The inhibitory effect of varying concentrations of flavonoids from Garcinia kola seeds, namely; Kolaviron (KV), Garcinia biflavanone (GB) 1, GB 2 and kolaflavanone (KF) on Fe/ ascorbate-induced peroxidation in LDL was investigated. Likewise the scavenging effect of these flavonoids on superoxide radicals and hydrogen peroxide in vitro was examined. Results: In the present study, KV, GB1, GB2 and KF exhibited marked scavenging effect (41-93 %) on H 2 O 2 , in vitro and the scavenging activities of these flavonoids were concentration dependent. Furthermore, KV, GB1, GB2 and KF showed marked activity as superoxide radicals (O 2 . ) scavenger. At 1 mg/ ml, KV, GB1, GB2 and KF scavenged O 2 . by 71%, 52 %, 66 % and 48 %, respectively. In addition, KV, GB1, GB2 and KF showed marked reducing property on potassium ferricyanide in vitro. KV, GB1 and GB2 were effective at preventing LDL lipid peroxidation (LPO) induced by Fe/ ascorbate system. Specifically at 0.01 mM, 0.1 mM and 1.0 mM, KV inhibited LPO by 29 %, 61 % and 79 %, while GB1 inhibited LPO by 29 %, 56 % and 86 %, respectively. At these concentrations, GB2 reduced LPO by 41 %, 72 % and 91 %, respectively. However, the inhibition of LDL peroxidation by KV, GB1 and GB2 were concentrations dependent. KF showed significant (p<0.05) inhibition of LDL peroxidation at 1.0 mM only. The inhibition of LDL peroxidation by these flavonoids follow the trend GB2 > GB1 > KV > KF at 1.0 mM. Conclusion: These flavonoids are active scavengers of H 2 O 2 and O 2 . radicals in vitro and their antilipoperoxidative effect might be linked to free radical scavenging ability, and this could be a pointer to their possible anti-atherogenic property.

With an ever increasing demand on blood supplies worldwide, there is an immense need to ensure a safe and sufficient supply of blood products. However, recruiting and retaining blood donors remain key challenges for blood agencies. In an attempt to address these problems, researchers have identified a range of socio-demographic, organizational, physiological, and psychological factors that influence people's willingness to donate blood.

Aim: This study examined whether the Theory of Planned Behavior adds significantly to the prediction of intention and actual blood donation of the general Israeli population. Background: In most developed countries and in Israel in particular there is a chronic shortage of blood for transfusions. This raises questions about methods of increasing blood donations. Design: This is a correlational quantitative study. Methods: A questionnaire was created based on a review of the literature and the Theory of Planned Behavior. The questionnaire was distributed among a convenience sample of 190 Israeli Jewish men and women, aged 17-60. Results: Israelis' perceived behavioral control of their blood donations, their subjective norms and their attitude regarding blood donation, predicted their intention to donate blood. It seems that intention predicted actual blood donations. A conspicuous finding is that members of the Ethiopian Jewish community displayed an extremely limited intention to donate blood. Conclusions: The results of this study show that a number of various educational and practical strategies may be used to encourage the population to donate blood. These include: reducing perceived barriers, directing interventions specifically at the population most likely to donate blood and forming a reserve of regular donors. ª

Although screening for Trypanosoma cruzi antibodies is mandatory in most South American countries, current tests are insensitive and have poor specificity. A recently optimized line immunoassay (the INNO-LIA Chagas assay) for the serological confirmation of Chagas' disease was evaluated at a large blood bank in São Paulo, Brazil. Sera from blood donors who reacted in at least one of three serological screening assays (n ‫؍‬ 1,604) and who returned for a follow-up were retested, and the donors were interviewed to assess their epidemiological risk. The results obtained by the confirmatory assay evaluated in this study were compared to those obtained by the three different screening assays. Upon consideration of the consensus results obtained by the three different screening assays as a "gold standard," the INNO-LIA Chagas assay showed a sensitivity of 99.4% (95% confidence interval [CI], 98.3 to 99.9) and a specificity of 98.1% (95% CI, 96.6 to 99.0) for positive (n ‫؍‬ 503) and negative (n ‫؍‬ 577) sera. The INNO-LIA Chagas assay confirmed the results for significantly larger numbers of positive samples of at-risk individuals independent of the number of positive screening tests (P ‫؍‬ 0.017, Mantel-Haenszel test). In conclusion, the INNO-LIA Chagas assay reliably confirmed the presence of antibodies to T. cruzi and can be implemented as a confirmatory assay for Chagas' disease serology.

With worldwide demand for plasma-derived products increasing, a critical question is how to effectively recruit and retain VNR plasmapheresis donors? This review summarises an emerging empirical literature and translates this into practical strategies for BCAs. We extend this to consider how 'flexible' donorsdonors who move between panels as required to donate the right product at the right timemay be best cultivated by BCAs.

Le don du sang est encadré par des textes réglementaires dont la finalité est d'une part, de garantir la sécurité des transfusions sanguines effectuées à partir des produits sanguins issus de ces dons et d'autre part de préserver la santé des donneurs. Chaque don de sang est précédé d'un entretien médical au cours duquel est évaluée l'aptitude du candidat au don à supporter un prélèvement de 400 à 600 mL de sang ou de ses composants, et vérifiée l'absence de risque d'exposition à des maladies transmissibles par voie sanguine. Les critères d'exclusion du don sont définis sur des arguments cliniques et épidémiologiques. L'enjeu de la sélection des candidats au don consiste à maîtriser le risque infectieux résiduel provoqué par les agents pathogènes connus, risque lié à la période de mutité biologique des contaminations récentes, l'absence de technique d'inactivation des pathogènes actuellement disponible pour les produits sanguins labiles cellulaires, et le risque inhérent à tout processus de production. La sélection des candidats au don s'est révélée être le seul moyen de réduire le risque de transmission d'un agent émergent par transfusion sanguine.Blood donation is framed by regulations whose finality is to guarantee the safety of blood transfusions and to preserve the health of the donors. Each blood donation is preceded by a medical interview which evaluates the aptitude of the donor to support a 400 to 600 mL collection of blood or its components, and checks the absence of exposure to blood-borne diseases. The criteria of exclusion of blood donation are defined on clinical and epidemiologic arguments. The aim of blood donors selection is consisting in managing the residual infectious risk caused by known pathogens, risk related to the window period due to recent contaminations, the absence of technique of pathogens inactivation available for the cellular blood products, and the risk inherent in any production process. Blood donors selection proved to be the only means of reducing the risk of transmission of an emergent agent by blood transfusion.

Background and purpose: The link between brain iron deficiency and RLS is now well established. In a related observation, several conditions that can deplete iron stores have been linked to increased probability of RLS. Blood donation has been linked to iron deficiency. It has thus been hypothesized that donating blood may be a risk factor for developing RLS. Patients and methods: Two thousand and five UK blood donors, ranging from first-time donors to some who had donated more than 70 times, completed the validated Cambridge-Hopkins RLS questionnaire (CH-RLSq) following their donation session. The questionnaire included a set of questions designed to diagnose RLS. The donors' histories of blood donations were determined both from self-report and from the National Blood Service database. Results: A number of statistical models were constructed to determine whether the probability of RLS diagnosis was related to the history of blood donations. Controlling for age and sex, no evidence was found to suggest that a greater number or frequency of blood donations increased the risk of RLS. Even amongst sub-groups especially vulnerable to iron depletion through blood donation, such as vegetarians or low weight individuals, no evidence for an increased risk of RLS could be found. Conclusions: We found no evidence that the frequency or number of blood donations up to the UK maximum of three times a year would increase the risk of RLS.

A spectrum of blood-borne infectious agents is transmitted through transfusion of infected blood donated by apparently healthy and asymptomatic blood donors. The diversity of infectious agents includes hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV-1/2), human T-cell lymphotropic viruses (HTLV-I/II), Cytomegalovirus (CMV), Parvovirus B19, West Nile Virus (WNV), Dengue virus, trypanosomiasis, malaria, and variant CJD. Several strategies are implemented to reduce the risk of transmitting these infectious agents by donor exclusion for clinical history of risk factors, screening for the serological markers of infections, and nucleic acid testing (NAT) by viral gene amplification for direct and sensitive detection of the known infectious agents. Consequently, transfusions are safer now than ever before and we have learnt how to mitigate risks of emerging infectious diseases such as West Nile, Chikungunya, and Dengue viruses.

Blood donation behaviour was studied in 809 residents of the Greater Athens area to identify so&o-economic and attitudinal factors and level of knowledge about blood donation related to donor behaviour. The sample was randomly selected and consisted of men and women aged 1865, the legally defined age for donation. According to stepwise regression analysis, blood donation (40.8% of the study population) was found to be correlated with gender, place of birth, occupation and knowledge about donation. Donors were more likely to be men than women; students and military recruits than professionals and scientists; and those with higher knowledge scores regarding donation. In our factor analysis of the social attitudes related to blood donation, three factors emerged as important regarding donation: health-related incentives for the donor, structural incentives (organization of blood donation education and management of facilities) and the creation of social and economic incentives. With respect to the affective measures those who expressed feelings of guilt when presented with hypothetical, emotionally charged situations dramatizing the need for donor blood were more likely to be donors. The results of the data are discussed within a larger socio-cultural context and suggestions for health policy are made.

Spine surgery may be associated with profuse intraoperative bleeding that often requires blood transfusions. In recent years several techniques have been developed to avoid allogenic transfusions and their potential complications to surgical patients. In this study we review and analyse the role of preoperative recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO) administration in spine surgery as a blood conservation strategy. Between 1998 and 2002, a total of 250 patients scheduled for spine surgery were included in our blood-sparing program: 114 patients (group 1), operated on before rHuEPO approval (2000), underwent preoperative autologous blood donation (ABD) alone, and 136 patients operated on after rHuEPO approval (groups 2 and 3) received rHuEPO while undergoing ABD. Adding rHuEPO to ABD resulted in higher haemoglobin and haematocrit values the day of surgery, more ABD units retrieved per patient and, consequently, reduced allogenic transfusion requirements. The effectiveness of rHuEPO as the only preoperative blood conservation technique was evaluated in ten patients with a predicted blood loss of less than 30% of their total volume, scheduled for lumbar surgery. Data from these patients were matched with those from a similar group of patients who had undergone ABD. Patients receiving rHuEPO alone had higher haemoglobin levels the day of surgery than did patients in the ABD program. Neither group required allogenic transfusions. Conclusions: preoperative rHuEPO is useful for reducing allogenic blood requirements in elective spine surgery. In patients with an expected blood loss of around 50% of blood volume, rHuEPO improves ABD, minimising preoperative anaemia and increasing the number of ABD units collected. In patients with expected blood loss below 30% of total volume, rHuEPO administration may replace ABD.

In minipool nucleic acid test (MP-NAT) screening protocols, the donations implicated in reactive test pools are released for transfusion when they are nonreactive in a repeat test on the individual samples, but in individual-donation (ID)-NAT screening algorithms the release of nonrepeatable reactive (NRR) donations is under discussion. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: A previously developed window phase (WP) transmission risk model for NAT-screened blood transfusions has been refined to take the effect of repeat tests of initially reactive (IR) MP-or ID-NAT results into account. The model has then been applied to simulate the effect of different screening algorithms with ULTRIO and the newgeneration ULTRIO Plus assay (Novartis Diagnostics) on transmission risk for hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). RESULTS: We calculated WP risk-day equivalents for MP16-, MP8-, and ID-NAT with and without duplicate retesting of IR results of 3.1, 2.7, 1.5, and 1.3 days for HCV; 6.3, 5.5, 3.3, and 2.9 days for HIV; and 24.4, 22.2, 15.6, and 14.1 days for HBV, respectively. These latter infectious HBV WPs reduced to 20.4, 18.2, 11.6, and 10.3 days, respectively, with the more sensitive ULTRIO Plus assay. CONCLUSION: ULTRIO Plus ID-NAT screening reduces the virus transmission risk in the WP by 54% to 58% compared to ULTRIO MP16-NAT, while the incremental risk caused by releasing donations with duplicate ID-NAT NRR results is 5% to 6%. To achieve maximum safety and specificity a similar repeat test algorithm can be applied to ID-NAT as used for serologic assays. ABBREVIATIONS: ARCBS = Australian Red Cross Blood Service; ID-NAT = individual-donation nucleic acid test; IR = initially reactive; MP = minipool; NRR = nonrepeatable reactive; SANBS = South African National Blood Service; SIV = simian immunodeficiency virus; WP(s) = window phase(s). From bioMérieux,

The ability of three subscales of the Medical Fears Survey (fear of injections and blood draws, fear of blood, fear of mutilated bodies) to predict vasovagal reactions was examined in 364 volunteer blood donors. Participants completed the subscales of the Medical Fears Survey immediately prior to blood donation, and then rated their subjective physiological reactions while seated in a postdonation refreshment area. Correlation analyses indicated that high scores on the fear of injections and blood draws subscale was the best predictor of vasovagal reactions in first-time and experienced female donors (r = .65 and .34, respectively, p < .01). Although the fear of blood subscale was significantly correlated with vasovagal reactions in experienced male donors (r = .45, p < .01), none of the subscales of the Medical Fears Survey was significantly related to subjective physiological reactions in novice male blood donors. Finally, for female donors higher levels of vasovagal reactions to the donation process were associated with decreased intentions to donate blood in the future.

An evaluation of three new rapid diagnostic test kits for human immunodeficiency virus types 1 and 2 (HIV-1/2), hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), and syphilis involved a two-phase comparison of rapid diagnostic assays using prospectively collected from hospitals and clinics in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. After specificity and sensitivity testing, three new rapid diagnostic test kits were tested in parallel with six commonly used diagnostic test kits. The Determine HIV-1/2 test had fewer indeterminate or equivocal results than the Capillus HIV-1/HIV-2 or HIV Blot 2.2 tests. However, the Determine HIV-1/2 test yielded one false-positive result when compared with the Serodia HIV, HIV Blot 2.2, and microparticle enzyme immunoassay (IMx) HIV tests. The Serodia HBsAg test yielded more false-negative results when compared with the Determine HBsAg diagnostic test kit. The results of the syphilis diagnostic tests evaluated in this clinical trial consistently agreed with those of the rapid plasma reagin test for syphilis. The Determine Syphilis Treponema pallidum (TP) test had three false-positive results compared with the Serodia TP and the Serodia TP•particle agglutination (PA) tests, which had two false-positive results that were confirmed as negative by an ELISA. Application of these serologic tests within this comparative evaluation framework, using the World Health Organization alternative testing strategies, proved to be an effective way to determine serostatus related to HIV, hepatitis B, and syphilis.

Background: Researchers and activists have long called for changes to blood donation policies to end what is frequently framed as unjustified bans or deferral periods for men who have sex with men (MSM). Since 2016, in Canada, a man had to be abstinent from all sexual contact (anal or oral sex) with other men for at least 12 months in order to be an eligible blood donor. As of June 3, 2019, this deferral period was reduced to 3 months. Methods: To better understand the acceptance of existing deferral policies and possible future policy, we conducted 47 in-depth interviews with a demographically diverse sample of gay, bisexual, queer, and other men who have sex with men (GBM) in Canada's three largest cities: Vancouver, (n = 17), Toronto (n = 15), and Montreal (n = 15). Interviews were coded in NVivo 11 following an inductive thematic analysis. We focus on men's preferred policy directions and their opinions about a policy change proposed by Canada's blood operators: a 3-month deferral for all sexual activity between men. We interviewed GBM approximately one-year before this new deferral policy was approved by Health Canada. Results: Most participants were opposed to any deferral period in relation to MSM-specific sexual activity. A fair and safe policy was one that was the "same for everyone" and included screening for several risk factors during the blood donation process with no categorical exclusion of all sexually active MSM. Participants believed that multiple "gender blind" and HIV testing-related strategies could be integrated into the blood donation process. These preferences for a move away from MSM-specific exclusions aligned with their opinions concerning the possible change to a 3-month MSM deferral, for which participants shared three overarching perspectives: (1) step in the right direction; (2) ambivalence and uncertainty; and (3) not an improvement.

This article reports two studies designed to test a theory of planned behavior-hued model of blood donation. In Study 1 ( n = 136), self-efficacy and self-identity accounted for unique variance in behavioral intention. Study 2 ( n = 172) extended Study 1: self-efficacy, perceived control over behavior (PCB), self-identity, and moral norm were all independently predictive of intention; behavioral intention predicted a proxy measure of hehavioral enaction. Both studies provided evidence to support a distinction between selfefficacy and PCB, and for the inclusion of self-identity and moral norm into the model. Belief-hased measures discriminated intenders from nonintenders, and beliefs that accounted for unique variance in self-efficacy and PCB were identified. The findings are discussed in relation to using models such as the theory of planned behavior to intervene in social and health behaviors.

A multiplex real-time quantitative reverse transcription (RT)-PCR assay was developed for simultaneous detection, identification and quantification of hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) in plasma or serum samples. Genomic amplification of one virus was unaffected by the simultaneous amplification of the other two. Competition between HCV and HIV-1 amplifications slightly affected the yield of HIV-1 amplification. However, quantitation was possible when a single virus was present. The 95% detection limits were 30, 167 and 680 IU/ml for HBV DNA, HCV RNA and HIV-1 RNA, respectively. The multiplex assay detected with similar efficiency strains of HBV genotypes A-F, HCV genotypes 1-6, and HIV-1 subtypes A-G. Applied to 267 pools of 10 plasmas from blood donors, multiplex screening indicated that the assay was reproducible, sensitive, and specific. This assay has the potential to be used for large-scale nucleic acid testing (NAT) of blood donations.