UK: People with ongoing Long Covid symptoms unable to donate blood (as of July 2023)

[Andy]

As per thread title,
"If you have ongoing symptoms you will be unable to donate.

Symptoms may be intermittent and include;

Fatigue
Shortness of Breath
Headaches
Dizziness
Confusion
Brain Fog
Pins and Needles
Skin Rashes"


Source, https://my.blood.co.uk/your-account...031&title=Long+Covid+:+COVID-19+(Coronavirus)

First record of this web page on the Internet Archive site is 31st July 2023, https://web.archive.org/web/2023073...031&title=Long+Covid+:+COVID-19+(Coronavirus)

 

[Denise]

Of course they passed up the opportunity to have PEM/PESE (spelled out in words) as a symptom.... it could have been an opportunity for people to look it up and learn more about what they are experiencing. (Can't have that now, can we?)

 

[Ariel]

Of course they passed up the opportunity to have PEM/PESE (spelled out in words) as a symptom.... it could have been an opportunity for people to look it up and learn more about what they are experiencing. (Can't have that now, can we?)

I feel like in the UK they never acknowledged this as part of LC officially? (Unlike in the US, where they did.)

 

[Maat]

Are ME/CFS patients still banned? You used to be able to check on the illness list.

 

[Andy]

Are ME/CFS patients still banned? You used to be able to check on the illness list.

Yep, I assume that our false illness beliefs are potentially infectious.....

https://my.blood.co.uk/your-account/eligibility/health/article/?id=00830p31&title=CFS+:+Fatigue

 

[Jonathan Edwards]

Yep, I assume that our false illness beliefs are potentially infectious.....

So maybe the doctors should be banned since all these beliefs must have been caught off doctors?
It would be particularly disturbing if transfusion recipients came to believe that their symptoms of recurrent haemorrhage were psychosomatic.

 

[Maat]

My point exactly. If you get a chance and are up to it, listen to the podcast in @Dolphin 's post today. Nancy Klimas is interviewed, but the podcasters chat about how they are with their Long Covid before that. All the tests and referrals they've had. Health inequality is an issue. I could only manage to listen part way through before I crashed, and I wasn't up to going through the other attachments to the post, so I may be pre-judging.

Experiences with Klimas group

 

[Maat]

So maybe the doctors should be banned since all these beliefs must have been caught off doctors?
It would be particularly disturbing if transfusion recipients came to believe that their symptoms of recurrent haemorrhage were psychosomatic.

Wouldn't it.

 

[Maat]

As a result of the CMO's report in 2002, the government of the day funded new England-wide specialist CFS/ME Clinics to the tune of £8.5m. Multi-disciplinary HCPs but those were:

" physicians, dietitians, occupational therapists, physiotherapists and psychologists."
​

Page 2 point 3 of this MEA handout: SPECIALIST-REFERRALS-MECFS-SPECALIST-SERVICES-FEBRUARY-2020.pdf (meassociation.org.uk)

 

[bobbler]

are they claiming as for ME/CFS that it is all about them caring about the pwme and not the recipient issue?

 

[shak8]

Higher levels of fragment RNA of the covid-19 virus in Long Covid patients in China.
Still is unknown if these fragments are a causative factor in the development of LC symptoms.

Also unknown whether these reservoirs contain replication-competent virus.

Per Dr. Daniel Griffin TWIV approx 28 min

which references this study out of China in the Lancet. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/...24)00171-3/fulltext?dgcid=raven_jbs_aip_email

So, it would seem prudent to me to avoid these unknowns in the blood supply.

 

[rvallee]

are they claiming as for ME/CFS that it is all about them caring about the pwme and not the recipient issue?

They're claiming whatever explanation satisfies the person asking at the moment they're asking.