Giving blood with cfs in UK.

[knackers323]

I've heard it is not allowed. Is this true? If so, how does this gel with the uk stance on cfs being psychosomatic?

 

[Martial]

I am pretty sure it is the same in the United States, also according to CDC they deem it an unknown cause so warrant against the use of giving blood. i.e. pyschosomatic is one of just many "theories" behind the condition, however they still treat it as a real illness and take precautions to ensure the spread of it.

 

[Wildcat]

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http://www.nhsbt.nhs.uk/news-and-media/news-archive/news_2010_10_07.asp


'From 1 November 2010, people with Myalgic Encephalitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME) were permanently deferred from giving blood in the UK.

The change to donor selection guidelines, which applied across all four UK Blood Services, was as a result of recommendations by the UK Blood Services Standing Advisory Committee on the Care and Selection of Donors, and Joint Professional Advisory Committee (JPAC).

In the past, donors with a history of ME/CFS could give blood, provided they had completely recovered and were feeling well.

However, as ME/CFS is a condition where people can relapse and become ill again, donor selection guidelines were changed as a precaution to protect the donor’s safety by ensuring the condition is not made worse by donating blood. There is no evidence that a donation from a donor with this condition could in any way harm a patient.

This change brought donor selection guidelines for ME/CFS into line with other conditions where individuals are permanently excluded from blood donation to protect their own health.'

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[Wildcat]

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8050655/ME-patients-banned-from-giving-blood.html

From the Comments section below this article:


'This is a letter that a patient received on the 13th August 2010.
http://dancingwiththesandman.b...

"In the absence of any infectious cause of CFS, people with this relapsing syndrome are currently excluded from donating blood while they feel unwell, in order to protect their own health. The UK Blood Services will shortly be amending its criteria to exclude such people from blood donation on a lifetime basis, bringing them in line with the practice of not accepting donations from people with other relapsing conditions. Whilst the purpose of this is to protect the donor's health from any possible harmful effects from donating blood, it will also minimise the likelihood that donations from people who have ever suffered from CFS could enter the blood supply. "

Yep, it's about protecting the blood supply. So no more excuses, start investing in ME biomedical research NOW!'
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[knackers323]

People should not be suffering with this crap. It really should have been sorted out years ago

 

[Wildcat]

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The UK Lifetime Blood ban was only brought in in November 2010, after widespread publicity about XMRV. The UK Blood service and NHS stated that the ban was to safeguard the health of the patients, but the timing does not suggest that was the reason. The ban brings the blood donation policy on ME in line with that on MS and other 'relapsing conditions'. Previously people with ME could donate blood if they felt well.

In Britian psychosomatic drives the whole policy and treatments of ME, though there are multiple different words used to disguise 'psychosomatic', ie 'Functional', 'Functional Somatic Syndrome' and others.
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[Min]

We cannot donate body tissue after we die either, in case we pass on what Peter White terms our 'abnormal illness belief'.

 

[Wildcat]

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Min wrote: "We cannot donate body tissue after we die either, in case we pass on what Peter White terms our 'abnormal illness belief'."

Yep.... we've had serious problems in the UK with abnormal illness beliefs, hysteria and psychosomatic conditions being passed on via blood transfusions.....
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[charles shepherd]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8050655/ME-patients-banned-from-giving-blood.html

The position remind the same