Per the Transfusion News article the FDA recommends all donated blood be tested for Babesiosis which is a co-infection of Lyme Disease. Is that being done? NO
The problem is
- Not every state in the country is testing donated blood. In fact only one state is.
- If you do get Babesiosis most likely your doctor won’t know you have it.
- Lyme Disease and it’s co-infections mimic over 300 other diseases and your doctor(s) will most likely give you many other diagnoses that are not correct.
What is Babesiosis? Babesiosis is a malaria like parasite infection. It’s one of the Lyme Co-Infections. Here are some of the symptoms, fatigue, headache, drenching sweats, muscle aches, chest pain, hip pain and shortness of breath (“air hunger”). I’ve had all of these symptoms but the drenching sweats and air hunger are gone now. Check out some links about Babesia.
So, per American Red Cross (ARC) website
“Blood donations are tested for the following:
- ABO and Rh blood types.
- Unexpected red blood cell antibodies that are a result of prior transfusion, pregnancy, or other factors.
- Hepatitis B surface antigen, indicating a current infection (hepatitis) or carrier state for hepatitis B virus.
- Antibody to hepatitis B core antigen, indicator of a present or past infection with the hepatitis B virus.
- Antibody to hepatitis C virus, indicating a current or past infection with hepatitis C virus (most common cause of non-A/non-B hepatitis).
- Antibody to HTLV-I/II, indicator of infection with a virus that may cause adult T-cell leukemia or neurological disease.
- Antibody to HIV-1/2, indicator of infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
- Nucleic Acid Test (NAT) for hepatitis C (HCV), hepatitis B (HBV) and HIV.
- Screening test for antibodies to syphilis.
- NAT for West Nile Virus (WNV).
- Enzyme-linked immunoassay (ELISA) test for Trypanosoma cruzi (Chagas Disease).
In addition, all platelet apheresis donations are tested for bacterial contamination.”
They also state that they will notify you if you blood test positive for an infectious disease. But if they don’t test for it then you will never know if you have it.
The ARC website also states that they are doing an Investigational Study to test blood for a tick-borne parasite.
Sorry folks that have received a blood transfusion 😦
Good news is it probably saved your life!
And what about all the other infections? Hmmmm. Not good!
But I can tell you that you didn’t get it from me. I’ve never donated blood. Good thing!