Can I donate blood

You must not donate blood if:

• You have AIDS or HIV, the virus which causes AIDS.

• You suspect you may have been exposed to HIV.

• You have unexplained weight loss, persistent night sweats, fever, diarrhoea or swollen glands. These symptoms could be due to HIV infection or another serious illness. Please see a doctor.

• You are at risk of HIV infection due to high-risk activities you do presently or in the past.

High-risk activities include the following:

• Having casual sex

• Having sex with another man (if you are a male)

• Having sex with multiple partners

• Having sex with prostitutes or commercial sex workers

• Having sex with someone who has HIV/AIDs

• Took or injected yourself with addictive drugs

• Working as a prostitute or commercial sex worker

It is important not to donate blood if you have been exposed to the HIV virus from high-risk activities. There is a window period in the early stage of HIV infection, lasting several weeks to months, where you may feel well and test negative for the virus, but can still pass it to someone else.

Note: The term "sexual activity" means any of the activities below whether or not a condom or other protection was used:

• Vaginal sex (contact between penis and vagina)

• Oral sex (mouth or tongue on someone’s vagina, penis, or anus)

• Anal sex (contact between penis and anus)

You should not donate blood if you have an upper respiratory tract infection, such as cold, flu, sore throat or any other symptoms of infection.

You should wait for 1 week after recovery, as it may be harmful to you and the recipients if you donate blood when you have an infection. If you also have fever, the waiting period is 4 weeks.

• Scaling or dental filling-you can donate after 1 day.

• Tooth extraction- you can donate after 3 days.

• Root canal treatment-you can donate after 7 days.

• Wisdom tooth extraction (1 or more)- you can donate after 1 month.

For more information or if you need further clarification, please call 6213 0626 and speak to our medical staff.

The following donors are not eligible to donate due to the risk of transmitting Creutzfeld Jakob Disease (CJD) and variant Creutzfeld Jakob Disease by blood transfusion.

1. Donors who have been diagnosed with CJD, vCJD or any other Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSE).

2. Donors who are considered to have an increased risk for CJD,

   1. Received a dura mater transplant,

   2. taken human pituitary-derived hormones,

   3. have one or more blood relatives diagnosed with familial prion disease (e.g., familial CJD, Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker syndrome (GSS) and fatal familial insomnia (FFI),

   4. received a corneal transplant.

3. Donors who have received a blood transfusion in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland or France between 1980 and present.

Donors who were previously deferred due to stay in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, France and other countries in Europe during the affected period may now donate by apheresis. To know more about the change in criteria, click here.

If you need further clarification, please call 6213 0626 and speak to our medical staff.

You can donate blood if you are taking brewed herbs such as ginseng and lingzhi.

Donors who took traditional or herbal medicine processed into pills, capsules or herbal extracts within the last 3 days may be accepted only  for whole blood donation. Please inform our medical screening staff if the last dose was taken within the last 3 days as only the red cells will be used in your donation.

Platelet and Plasma apheresis donors can only donate 3 days after the taking the last dose.

For more information or if you need further clarification, please call 6213 0626 and speak to our medical staff.

Visiting or travelling to different regions of the world may make you ineligible to donate blood for a period of time. This is because some infections caught abroad can be transmitted through blood transfusion.

Please read up on on HSA's advisory on donating blood after overseas travel.