
Man donated blood every week for 60 years, saved 2.4M babies - kimsk112
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/he-donated-blood-every-week-for-60-years-and-saved-the-lives-of-24-million-babies/ar-AAx7Okx?OCID=ansmsnnews11
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mkstowegnv
I am AB+ and CMV- which makes my plasma particularly valuable. I have donated
at the maximal rate for decades. However I am in a quandary because they do
not test for Lyme or other tick borne diseases and I do thousands of hours of
field work and live in the country so despite precautions (I recommend
powdered sulfur over DEET) I get a non trivial number of tick bites. I am a
biologist and my medical friends and I agree that both volunteered and paid
blood donation in the US is mostly safe but riddled with illogical choices,
managed by the wrong kind of organizations and generally ripe for disruption.

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ken
> I am a biologist and my medical friends and I agree that both volunteered
> and paid blood donation in the US is mostly safe

For the non-biologists, can you elaborate on this? My understanding was that
paid "donations" aren't generally considered to be as safe. For example, the
GOA report (referenced at [1]) seems to say that California's plasma supply
(which is not required to report whether the donors are financially
compensated) had an HIV rate of around 5 times that of the red blood supply.

[1]: [https://www.statnews.com/2016/01/22/paid-plasma-not-
blood/](https://www.statnews.com/2016/01/22/paid-plasma-not-blood/)

I agree that the deferments are often illogical, but from what I've read, I
think non-payment makes sense. Blood banks are technically allowed to pay for
whole blood, too, yet apparently no hospital would accept it, which leads me
to believe it's not just a PR issue.

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mkstowegnv
Thank you for the link, but there are a few details in the article that
conflict with my understanding. Sadly I don't have time at the moment to do
the research and write a well documented essay on this subject. I note that
that the cited report was from 1997.

For now I'll limit my thoughts to just this:

It would be nice for donors and the general public if there was more
transparency in:

the breakdown of end uses of the donated products the safety record of the
products the risk calculations behind the deferment questions the accuracy of
the blood testing

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gus_massa
It's a nice contribution for the humanity, but I still don't believe that the
2.4M babies calculation is correct. Did his blood save the 2.4M babies or the
blood of all the similar donors saved the 2.4M babies?

Also, how can he make so many donations? IIRC you can only donate blood every
two month or something like that. Did they remove the plasma and return the
red cells or they just made an exception because the rare condition and the
good health?

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metabagel
He donates plasma. He's one of only approximately 50 people in Australia who
have the necessary antibodies.

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dekhn
Odd the article doesn't mention CMV. He would have to also be CMV-negative
(somewhat rare) to donate for children. I am CMV-negative and was aggresively
courted for my blood (they never said _anything_ about antibodies). I guess
the difference is plasma vs full blood?

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sitkack
I used to donate at the maximum rate, but my veins got so scarred they they
collapse when I do over head presses and my arms turn gray at the elbow. I
have stopped donating blood. If they could be repaired and I could guarantee
it wouldn't happen again, I'd restart.

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craftyguy
I also used to donate blood, frequently (once a month) but not at the max
rate. I stopped when the Red Cross started harassing me at all hours when I
was traveling and unable to give blood. This was ~5yrs ago, and the
harrassment continues. I've developed quite a database of numbers they call
from. I wish there was another organization to donate blood to in the US.

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Yabood
You can try to find an NIH facility near you, thats what I do. They only let
you donate every 45 days though.

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craftyguy
thanks, I'll look into it!

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maxerickson
There's also lots of regional blood banks. The one here is mostly a single
person doing both outreach and the blood collection. She calls when I'm
eligible to donate, but is also asking about my contact preferences on an
ongoing basis (do you want to set an appointment now or call later or ...).

