Blood Donation Tests?!


Question:

Blood Donation Tests?

I don't know if anybody's going to know this but: When you donate blood, what tests do they run on it before they'll declare it healthy enough to be used? I donated blood 2 months ago and I was told that it was healthy and free of disease and I was eligible to donate again, but to what extent does that mean I am healthy? Do they only test for AIDS and stuff? Or do they run like full tests to check the overall health of the donor and make sure there's no early signs of cancers, or other diseases? Just curious . Thanks in advance! :-)

Additional Details

5 days ago
Ok for the person who just decided to freak out about donating blood just be tested and blah blah blah, and any others who do that as well:

I DID NOT ask this question because I only donated blood to get tested. That blood donation was my first ever and I was curious as to what they meant by "You're healthy, and are eligible to donate again". Good God! Do something nice for the goodness of other people and somebody's always going to assume you did it for your own benefit!


Answers:

They are only testing for syphilis, HIV (the virus that causes AIDS), hepatitis and they check other factors in your blood such as blood count & iron. Just because your blood is acceptable, does NOT mean you are healthy and you should never ever give blood just to test for those diseases. HIV does not always show up right away and there are false positives and negatives and innocent lives pay for it such as my son who had his first blood transfusion at 4 weeks old during his 1st of 3 open heart surgeries.

Donating blood will not screen for cancer or tell you if you have a chronic condition such as diabetes or a thyroid disorder. It won't tell you if you are risk for heart disease or high blood pressure. You should be checked out by a doctor and have a physical for those things.




The consumer health information on answer-health.com is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice or treatment for any medical conditions.
The answer content post by the user, if contains the copyright content please contact us, we will immediately remove it.
Copyright © 2007-2011 answer-health.com -   Terms of Use -   Contact us

Health Categories