A donor gives blood at a blood bank. File picture: Matthew Jordaan/African News Agency (ANA) Archives A donor gives blood at a blood bank. File picture: Matthew Jordaan/African News Agency (ANA) Archives
Cape Town - An increase in cannabis use was just one of the reasons the Western Cape Blood Service aims to change the rules for some donors.
The service advised donors of the proposed changes in a newsletter distributed last week. All of these changes will come into effect in the next two months.
The service said it needed to train staff and make the necessary changes to questionnaires before the new rules were implemented.
The newsletter states: “Donors using any form of cannabis had to wait three days before donating blood, but this will be reduced to 24 hours.”
Transfusion medical specialist at the WCBS Dr Caroline Hilton said: “The majority of blood services across the world don’t have a referral period for people who use cannabis, provided that they are not high at the time of donating.
“But we have still put in a 24-hour deferral from the time of use... to make sure that the blood we collect is as safe as possible, and when people do engage in recreational substances they could engage in high-risk behaviour.”
In addition, “the deferral period for scope procedures, tattoos, piercings and starting new sexual relationships will also be reduced from six to three months”.
Hilton said: “This relates to our confidence in the testing that we use for HIV and hepatitis B and C.
“This type of testing reduces what is called the window period time quite significantly, so we are more confident that we will be able to detect people who are HIV positive.”
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