Drug & Sexual History for Blood Donations

Video Transcript

"The other questions we ask, the history card have to do with past sexual experience. And, what we're looking for is any high risk behavior that would lead to any exposure to AIDS and Hepatitis. So, some of the questions they're personal and they seem that they're harsh and strict. But, we want to make the blood as safe as possible. So, along with that you will be deferred if you've received a tattoo in the past twelve months. It's a one year deferral. Or, if you have a piercing that was not done with a sterile disposable needle or sterile techniques. And, that again is based on risk of Hepatitis and HIV. The other things that we would defer people for, are some medications and some health history. We have limited the amount of medications we're deferring for, certain medications we want to make sure donors aren't taking. Such as, propecia, proscar, avodart or accutane. Those medications have an ingredient called finasteride or dutasteride, which causes birth defects. So, we can't give blood that has been treated with that medication to donors. Other medications we can defer for are, insulin that comes from cows. Bovine insulin and that again is the mad cow disease risk. We defer sometimes when people taking platelet inhibitors, like cumodine or plavix. But, what we're looking for on that is the underlined condition. So, if you have a heart condition and you're prescribed that medication we will let you donate. But, you have to have written authorization from your physician before you can. And, sometimes people have taken that and there's no deferral at all. So, based on each individual underlined conditions and things that may need them to get authorized from their doctor. We would also defer for unlicensed vaccines or any type of research vaccine that has not been approved by the FDA. The FDA is our main regulator. They make a lot of the rules that we follow. All blood centers in the nation are mandated by the FDA. Other than that, most medications are ok. Blood pressure medication, cholesterol medication, allergy medication, those are all fine. Antibiotics, however are not. If you have an infection, we want you to finish your dose of antibiotics and wait forty-eight hours before you can come and donate. Some antibiotics are given for prophylactic reasons and it depends on which one you're taking. Penicillin derivatives would have a waiting period, where cycline derivatives like doxycycline or anything like that. That's ok. You can donate like that."