Attention Blood Donors who want to cruise

[Latitude 20]

Add the Amazon to the list of places after which you'll be deferred for a year. Plus you're deferred for 10 days after you get your yellow fever vaccination.

[jlointc]

Basically, if the CDC says there's malaria in the country, it pretty much bans you from donating for a year. Donated blood is not screened for malaria, so don't lie, it's not worth the risk to others.

 

If you go to this site: http://www.redcrossmichigan.org/guidelines.asp and look for "In-Depth Discussion of Malaria and Blood Donation" you'll find a list of countries that they say don't have malaria problems. If you visited somewhere not on that list, don't be surprised if they say no.

 

We used to donate on an irregular basis, but taking cruises has largely put a crimp on it because of the restrictions. (Costa Maya was our first stop that prevented us from doing it.)

 

I just tried donating today. Just got back from a 7-day Western Itenrary with Carnival. Costa Maya nailed me. :( 1 year. And I'm a regular 8 week donor, close to 7x/year.

[Joe Pflanz]

I was disallowed due to a stop at labadee on RCCL which is their private "island" in Haiti

[GE Mom]

The same thing happened to my husband when we visited Tulum a few years back. He was deferred for a year. He's type O negative, a very badly needed blood type, but he got rejected. He didn't mind, because they're always calling him to come donate and this gave him a little bit of a break from donating 5 or 6 times a year for the past 30 years.

[VillaHappy]

this gave him a little bit of a break from donating 5 or 6 times a year for the past 30 years.

 

That is a LOT of blood! It's good to see someone generous with donating like your husband! :D

[luxurysailer]

As a retired physician who has been a medical director of blood banks, I implore everyone not to even think about not truthfully answering every question on a blood donor questionaire. Those questions are asked for one reason and one reason only: to protect the recipient from contracting an infectious disease as a result of receiving your blood. I know of one case in which a patient lied about his medical history which resulted in the death of the person who received his blood.

[victravellers]

I just wanted to jump in here, related only with blood donation.

 

We were on a cruise in 2007 and a call in the middle of the night went out for blood donors. A passenger was in desperate need for blood and many very kind people came forward to assist.

They were asking for people who gave blood regularly BUT they MUST have their blood type card with them.

 

This thread just jogged my memory. I would never have thought to carry my blood type card with me on my cruise, but in may in fact save someones life until the ship could get to shore for further medical assistance.

[Ethel5]

We were on a cruise in 2007 and a call in the middle of the night went out for blood donors. A passenger was in desperate need for blood and many very kind people came forward to assist. They were asking for people who gave blood regularly BUT they MUST have their blood type card with them.

 

Blood donors were needed on 3 of our last 5 cruises!

[rockymo]

Some added information that I have learned since my first post. The list of areas that will prevent you from donating is updated frequently and is triggered not always by malaria cases, but by which areas spray for the malarial mosquitoes and as you can imagine this can change. Theoretically even if you checked on all the port areas of your cruise before you left and they were not on the list, by the time you returned they could be listed!! But as was already stated PLEASE BE TRUTHFULL! I was told that someone who may already be in ill health (with diminished immunity) who receives suspect blood would most likely not make a recovery. There is no test for malarial antibodies. I luckily had donated blood just before we left. My SIL ,his heart, after I was rejected gave a double red donation to make up for mine. Everyone just keep giving when you can. I am going to volunteer at our next donation day handing out the snacks instead!!

[azbirdmom]

I'll add Cartagena to the list! My DH went to donate blood today and was put on a 1 year deferral because all of Columbia is on the list the local bloodbank uses to screen donations. All this for one of the stops that we could have done without on our Panama Canal cruise.

[Host Carolyn]

As a sort of "aside" to this on our May 16 cruise an urgent call for blood donors went out from the bridge for a passenger .. specific blood types.. had to have donor card with you.. .talked to Captain at a cocktail party the next day and the three who donated literally saved this person's life... so you never know when you will be needed.. He had over 20 people respond.