My office organizes regular blood donation event, and last Friday was one of them. I registered for it and went to donate on my scheduled time. Before donation they check for other vital statistics (blood pressure, pulse rate, fever etc), and then you have to answer few questions about your health, drug (medicine) use, travels etc. I had traveled to Nepal last December so the guy filling out my paperwork had to look it up (they had a book with listings for different countries) to see any blood donation requirements for people traveling to Nepal.

There it was said that people traveling outside Kathmandu would have to wait for a year, from time of arrival to USA, before giving blood again. Now it will be only after December 25, 2008 before I can give blood again. Someone arriving in USA, for the first time, would have to wait for three years before giving blood. The point was to see if they had any strains of Malaria. I was quite taken back with the generalization of “outside Kathmandu” so I looked it up in Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) website. They had more specific explanation on Malaria risk “Risk in rural areas at altitudes below 1,200 m (<3,937 ft) in the Tarai and Hill districts bordering India and in the areas of the inner Tarai valley areas of Udaypur, Sindhupalchowk, Makwanpur, Chitwan, and Dang. No risk in Kathmandu or on typical Himalayan treks.”

The requirements for nationals from Europe were even stricter, thanks to Mad Cow disease. If you have lived in UK for 3 months or more from 1980 to 1996 then you are not eligible to donate. In fact if you have lived in any part of Europe for more than 5 years from 1980 to present than you are not eligible.

The requirements for African nationals were strict too, thanks to HIV. American Red Cross explains the situation as “There is a rare form of HIV called Type O that is found in western Africa. The available tests for HIV do not always detect the Type O strain. This means that blood programs must take special precautions to keep this virus out of the blood supply by not taking blood donations from those who have been where the virus is found.
Persons who were born in or lived in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Niger and Nigeria since 1977 cannot be blood donors. The Food and Drug Administration, which is responsible for supervising the safety of the American blood supply, put this requirement in place in 1996. The requirement applies to all blood donation programs, including that of the American Red Cross. The list of countries with HIV Type O risk is based on information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) where experts monitor infections worldwide.”

At first I found this system stupid, when I was denied, because they had generalized “outside Kathmandu” rule. I being the citizen of Nepal know more about Nepal but to be fair with them; if they go into specifics then it would be overwhelming amount of documents they will require to produce and establish more in depth tracking system.

Anyways, it was impressive to see them looking after their citizens, I bet other developed countries might have their own set of rules too.

Check this link to know more about blood donation requirements in USA. Check this link to see Malaria Risk Map created by CDC.