if you have lived in countries, like Germany, for more than i think its 4 months you cant donate blood to most blood providers...i dont get it...they dont let me donate b/c i mite have Mad Cow...i never ate meat in Germany, im vegetarian...do u think its right? i mean allll these ppl need blood, like right after 9/11, no wonder theres a blood shortage...almost every1 willing to give can't...this elimates like almost all service people n tons of ppl....what do u think? shoud ppl that have lived in European countries n coutries with bad water still be able to give?

they are just trying to be safe....jeez
how would you feel if you needed blood and you got some infected blood?
i sure wouldn't like it...




£¤¥¤£™ Justin

Yeah... they want to take all the necessary precautions

id rather get some n have a chance of living than not get any at all n have more a change of dieing

i had a friend who needed blood...she has lukemia...i culdnt donate blood to her except if i did it privatly which cost MEGA $$ b/c i lived in Germany for 6 months...its not the reason she died, but for someone else it could be

Well yes, I guess.. arent blood stores in the US pretty ample? I havent heard much about there every being shortages.. if a crisis arose.. then yes, it shouldnt matter.. but onli then..

If there's a significant amount and no risk of shortages and no pending disaster, it's better to be safe

like he said

plenty of people give, it was just the insane amounts needed in ONE spot after 9./11

HAHA...ha...i volunteer with the Red Cross...let me clue u in...MOST of the time, we are in need of blood

Yeah we are in SERIOUS need of blood. People think just because you don't see it being broadcasted on CNN that their is a blood shortage, that there isn't one.

Can't you get tested for mad cow? And Germany wasn't even the country with the huge outbreak.

hurmmm if they start testing, it would cost them alot of money. i agree that germany doesnt have alot of Mad Cow outbreaks, but they are trying to be safe.

as of now i dunt think there is a test for it...and yes, they are trying to stay safe...it doesnt change the fact that one of the MAIN reasons we are soooo low on blood is b/c like 1/2 the population cant donate...AND its not true for every1, but if u've like been to poor countries n stuff, it makes u wanna give to help more...so the ppl who are GENERALLY more willing to give, cant...they used to call my mom to donate b/c she never had this virus, giving her a rarer blood that could be used for almost ne1...now she cant donate...grr it drives me insane

just find someone else with the same type of blood in your family

y not give blood.... if ppl need it then y dont they let them have it

that cant alwayz happen...n if u have a disease that runs in the family, even if ur family doesnt get like sick like in the hospital like u kinda sick, they still may not be able to give blood...ive helped try to get ppl to donate n run blood drives...its hard to find eligable donners...they cant have had this n that..must be this weight, this height...this vaccine...over this age, under that age..etc.

Girl you don't have to look far for those kinds of problem while donating blood.

We (my work place) hosted a blood drive just last week and there were all sorts of problems. First, they refused to translate for a hispanic donor because the they didn't have a special license to translate certain scientific formulas to the hispanic donor. After that there was something about not being able to donate if people didn't bring IDs. I was like... "WTF, do you people run a blood drive or an immigration office?"

yeah i know...it insane i mean ppl dontate time to try to donate blood n 1/2 the time they inult u or..if u do..u get crackers...im like one day were gonna have a big prob. when no1 can donate blood nemore

even though for you it might seem really unfair, the people getting the blood dont wanna take that risk, and the people supplying the blood obviously dont want to be held responsible. all they are doing is taking the neccesary precautions just so everyone's happy. I wouldnt wanna be the poor guy on the other side, already having problems, then be under the false impression that the blood is gonna help you, when a week later it kills you.... I deffinitely wouldnt wanna be the guy on the other end

I've been told that they have to check that blood before they use it... So if they're going to check it, then why do they have to give a person so much trouble over something they're going to check over?

I understand the precautions, but I don't understand the ways the go about it.

Wow.. I learned so much in this thread....

you mean you get to.... keep your blood?

sick bastards!

oh well. more time for video games!

what?! thaz gay.. they can jus test it or something -0-...

CAN they test blood for Mad Cow disease? I dont know much about it, so I'm not exactly sure..

i dunt think so, i think they are working on it thou

Mad Cow disease is created by pryons in your brain. They don't go through the blood, so you can't test for them.

i agree with justin... i mean european ppls have bad water... and u guys drink them...and u guys can get bad infections and bad blood... who wants to give those blood? i dont think it's right to give blood wen u drink bad water...not a safe thing to do.

So does that mean they can be spread through blood?

I'm science illiterate so... you'd have to explain this.

Mad Cow Disease is not spread through blood. It is pryons (abnormal proteins) go into your brain and screw up the normal proteins than reproduce.

Mad cow disease is spread by eating brains and protein-high muscle mass from animals, not blood.

Oh yes, I remember now.. but.. how can blood transfusions spread mad cow disease then?

EDIT://
Ignore what I said, go back to original post:

She states that they denied her blood because she might have mad cow.. so isnt that a stupid reason to then? since mad cow doesnt transfer via blood

im not making it up? i tried to donate n they said we cant b/c we lived in Germany for so long n we "culd have mad cow"

I'm not saying you made it up.. I'm agreeing with you, that's denying you purely out of concern for mad cow disease is completely irrational and plain stupid if Minda is correct in stating that Mad Cow disease cannot be transferred via blood (I heard the same thing as well)

well, if the person is gona die anyway, then y not give them blood? its probably worth a try...

That sounds realli desperate.. I'd hate to have a doctor with that kind of attitude..

Anyways, the issue at hand is not about giving patients blood, its about what kind of blood to accept.. and I agree that blood should be made sure its safe 100%, but the mad cow reasoning goes a bit far..

no they were right...if w/o blood u are definitly going to die...y not give them blood to try n c if it works, or to hold them until u can get another blood kind...i mean it IS worth a try...id rather my doctor try, then go o look we have a vegetarian but nah she mite have mad cow...and then me die b/c they wont even try

u never know if its 100% sure...u can get a LOT of diseases from blood...they screen the blood, but they dont alwayz find everything and when they question u to see if they are going to accept your blood, many people lie...or make a mistake...i dunno y u wuld lie, but it happens...and then it goes to screening n b/c the person said something like they havnt had a certain virus, it doesnt get checked for that or maybe not as closely...so yeah

the only problem is that blood cant be proven 100% safe, blood tests are 98% accurate [im pretty sure] so in that 2% chance, if you're wrong, someone dies. why take the risk? but since Mad COw Disease isnt spread thru blood, i guess it wouldnt make a difference. unless youre checkin for STDs

DUDE! theres a guy in here named M@d Cow! HAHAHA! anyway one question. whats Mad Cow Disease?

-Flip-

Mad Cow disease (properly called bovine spongiform encephalopathy.)

Main Entry: bovine spon·gi·form encephalopathy

Pronunciation: -'sp&n-ji-"form-
Function: noun
: a fatal disease of cattle affecting the nervous system, resembling or identical with scrapie of sheep and goats, and probably caused by a prion transmitted by infected tissue in food -- abbreviation BSE; called also mad cow disease

from www.m-w.com


But this is about accepting blood to be stored and possibly shipped to hospitals, not about using the blood

Unless there was a blood shortage, I would want to be as safe as possible



Even if it isnt 100%, wouldnt you want the odds to be in your favor as much as possible?


Exactly, unless its absolutely crucial that blood be taken, you want to be as safe as possible.. ok, so its 98% safe.. would you care if you were the 2% that received an disease from it?

yes, but if there isnt enough blood for me i'd rather get some that MIGHT be in fected than have no chance at all

Do you know if there's a blood shortage right now?

yup

Realli? show me please.

how can i show u? just b/c its not on the news, doesnt mean there isnt one...trust me i sit in long meetings planning them n hand out papers that say "DONATE BLOOD, WE R IN SHORTAGE" if ever1 culd donate, chances are we wuld still have a shortage b/c most ppl still probably wouldnt do it...i dunt have mad cow...it wuld have show up by now and im vegetarian...eliminating ppl like me only makes the shortage worse

Um.. no, how do you keep saying there is a shortage? Have you been to the warehouses or whereever the blood is stored and seen them? If not, how can you possible be sure we have a shortage?

BTW, Mad cow takes around TEN YEARS to show up (though it IS NOT transferred through blood)

Unless you can be 100% sure there's a dire need for blood, we must be as safe as possible

i don't think there really is a shortage. after 9/11, so much blood was donated that a lot of it couldn't be stored and had to be tranferred or thrown away.

My point exactly.. if there isnt a shortage, why shouldnt we be as safe as we possibly can?

ummm yes there IS a blood shortage just b/c u dunt hear abt it doesnt mean there isnt one...ive been to one or the warehouse places, but i just toured it so not really...http://www.redcross.org/article/0,1072,0_312_2965,00.html <<read that article written yesterday abt how we need blood

well i read this article n if u read to teh end u'll c maybe the board agrees with me...they r thinking abt changing the policy so ppl who lived in the UK can donate...looks like they r starting to realize...still shuld allow more ppl thou

ppl over 17 weighing at least 110 lbs that meet the other requirments can usually donate ONE pint of blood every FOUR months...lets say some1 gets leukemia n needs a blood transfusion...during the course of their sickness they make take 30 pints of blood...thats 10 pints...and maybe again sortly after need more...when ive done blood drives normally we get around 20pints...that may not be enough for one person...and u know how many ppl need blood everyday? a LOT...so yeah there is a blood shortage...and yeah normally can tell if u have mad cow around 10 years later, i know that

rather be safe then sorry..

Ok, so if you have some minor surgery or something that requires blood, not some life threatening condition or anything, and then you get some terminal illness from the contaminated blood.. would you risk that?


Ok, in this situation where they're about to die.. then sure, why not? But the thing is, there's no telling who receives the blood after its donated..

If we start being more lenient on accepting blood, contaminated blood may more easily enter the blood supply and who knows where that might go

I give blood month...well except for this month i was gettin blood after my accident...but yeah the only thing they are doin is protecting the people that receive blood...i mean if i got blood from someone that was sick er somethin...i would be pissed

There is a shortage here in Georgia. 2 days ago they were saying that(i forget whcich type of blood) they only have 6 more pints of that blood.

Alot of blood was given during 9/11 but that was far from enough. Because to this day people form the 9/11 attacks still need blood, PLUS people who just need blood. There has always been a shortage of blood

So if you needed blood, you would be willing to take the risk of getting an disease from contaminated blood?

If the person has mad cow and it isn't transported through blood, why not. I was going to die anyways so. I mean it's sad but i could try something and the outcome be the same or better or i could not try something and the outcome just be the same with no hope