Medical Info

Medical Info: Been deferred from donating blood? You might be eligible again
December 22nd, 2010 2:47 PM

Did you receive a letter from Blood Assurance saying that you had a positive lab test and could not donate blood again? This is not an uncommon situation.  Although some letters inform donors that they are truly positive for disease, a much larger number of letters inform donors of falsely positive results.  False positive results mean that although the donor tested positive, the donor does not have the disease.

Good news!  The FDA changed the policy on reentering donors with false positive test results.  So, if you tested positive on the screening test for Hepatitis B then you can return in 8 weeks to be retested.  If your retest is negative, then you can begin donating again.  For the Hepatitis C screening test, you can return to be retested in 6 months, and for the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) screening test, you can return in 8 weeks for retesting.

So why do we get those false positive results in the first place?  The FDA requires that the tests be very sensitive to detect anyone who could possibly have the disease, but unfortunately the tests are so sensitive that healthy donors sometimes test positive.  The tests are designed to detect antibodies that you would make if you came in contact with the disease.  For example, people with HIV make the anti-HIV antibody.  The HIV screening test detects this antibody.  However, we make other antibodies every day.  We might get a flu shot or catch a cold.  This causes us to make antibodies which can cross react with the test and make it falsely positive.  Luckily many diseases have confirmatory tests so once we do the antibody screening test, we can perform a much more specific test to determine if the donor really has the disease or not.  This helps us determine what advice to give to the donor about treatment.  The results of the confirmatory tests also help us determine which donors can possibly come back to donate again.

So, if you have had a positive screening test for Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, or HIV, we invite you to return to Blood Assurance to be retested.  We welcome the opportunity to help you serve the community again.

Dr. Liz Culler
Medical Director
Blood Assurance  

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