Some diseases like Hepatitis B and C, AIDS and Syphilis permanently prevent blood donation, since they are diseases that can be transmitted by blood, with the possible infection of the person who receives it.
In addition, there are also situations where you may be temporarily unable to make a donation, especially if you have risky behaviors such as multiple sexual partners or consumption of illicit drugs that increase the risk of sexually transmitted diseases, if you have genital or labial herpes or if you have traveled recently out of the country, for example.
When I can never donate blood
Some of the diseases that permanently prevent blood donation are:
- HIV or AIDS infection; Hepatitis B or C; HTLV, which is a virus in the same family as the HIV virus; Diseases that have been treated with blood products for life; Have blood cancer such as lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease or leukemia for example; Chagas disease; Malaria; Injecting drug use - See what are the most common diseases caused by drugs.
In addition, in order to donate blood, the person must have more than 50 kg and be between 16 and 69 years of age, in the case of people under 18 years of age, it must be accompanied or authorized by the legal guardian. Blood donation lasts between 15 and 30 minutes and approximately 450 mL of blood is collected. See who can donate blood.
Men can donate every 3 months while women must wait 4 months between each donation due to blood loss due to the menstrual period.
Watch the following video and learn about other situations in which blood cannot be donated:
Situations that temporarily prevent donation
In addition to basic requirements such as age, weight and good health, there are some situations that may prevent donation during a period ranging from a few hours to a few months, such as:
- Ingestion of alcoholic beverages, which prevents donation for 12 hours; Infections, common cold, flu, diarrhea, fever, vomiting or tooth extraction, which prevents donation in the following 7 days; Pregnancy, normal delivery, by cesarean or abortion, in that donating between 6 to 12 months is not recommended; getting a tattoo, putting on a piercing or performing some acupuncture or mesotherapy treatment, which prevents donation for 4 months; multiple sexual partners, drug use or sexually transmitted diseases transmissible diseases, such as syphilis or gonorrhea, in which donation is not allowed for 12 months; conducting endoscopy, colonoscopy or rhinoscopy exams, which prevents the donation between 4 to 6 months; history of bleeding problems; blood pressure out of control; History of blood transfusion after 1980 or cornea, tissue or organ transplantation, which prevents donation for approximately 12 months; see any cancer that has not been in the blood, such as thyroid cancer, for example, which prevents donation for approximately 12 months after the cancer has completely healed; history of heart attack or heart surgery, which prevents donation for 6 months; You have cold sores, ocular or genital, and the donation is not authorized while you have symptoms.
Another factor that can temporarily prevent blood donation is travel outside the country, the length of time it is not possible to donate depends on the most common diseases in that region. So if you have been on a trip in the past 3 years, talk to your doctor or nurse to find out whether or not you can donate blood.
Watch the following video and also understand how blood donation works:
