Blood donation is an important part of the medical system of any state. We decided to examine several popular stereotypes about this procedure.
First you need to understand how blood and its donation work. Blood is a red fluid that circulates in arteries and veins. She consists of from plasma (liquid part) and formed elements - red blood cells, leukocytes And platelets. Plasma also contains salts and minerals (electrolytes), as well as useful proteins, including those involved in the formation of blood clots. According to the rules, blood shimmers only to the recipient of the same group as the donor; it is also required that they have the same Rh factor. Most common system division - AB0, in which red blood cells are divided into four groups based on the ability to attach two antigens to themselves (actually A and B). In people with group 0 (I), red blood cells cannot attach any of these antigens, with group A (II) - only the first antigen, with B (III) - only the second, and with the fourth AB (IV) - both. Other parameters are also used to classify blood, such as Rh and Kell factors.
A donor can donate either whole blood (that is, plasma along with formed elements) or, using a special procedure, only platelets, red blood cells or plasma. Procedure for donating exclusively platelets called thrombocytapheresis, in this case, the blood received from the donor is processed in a special centrifuge, which makes it possible to isolate exactly the necessary elements from it, and then returns it back to the donor’s body. The procedures of erythrocytepheresis and plasmapheresis are arranged in a similar way.
Since there are separate procedures for collecting exclusively platelets, red blood cells and plasma, these blood components can be transfused separately. Red blood cell transfusion is needed for patients with low hemoglobin levels and after massive blood loss, platelet transfusion for those who have problems with coagulation. Plasma transfusions have many different indications, in particular extensive surgical intervention, violation coagulability blood, oncological diseases. Also plasma recovered COVID-19 used For treatment complex cases of infection. Moreover, back in 2002, the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation reportedthat transfusion of individual elements necessary for the patient is better than whole blood. Although 17 years later this order was canceled, the very principle is adhered to by most medical institutions.
In this text, blood donation refers to both the donation of whole blood and the donation of individual components, unless otherwise noted. In turn, the term “blood transfusion” is used to refer to cases when the patient receives individual blood components from a donor.
Contents of the article
- Donated blood is only needed during emergencies
- Only donors with a rare blood type are needed
- Most donated blood is disposed of
- You can become infected with various diseases while donating blood.
- Donation is addictive
- Donation leads to depletion of iron reserves in the body and anemia
Donated blood is only needed during emergencies
Many believethat donated blood needed only for victims during disasters - terrorist attacks or natural disasters disasters. In such moments before points delivery blood are lining up huge queues from willing help. It is believed that in quiet times, blood transfusion is too rare a procedure and large supplies of donor blood are not in demand.
By statistics, one in three people will need a blood transfusion in their lifetime. American Red Cross countedthat in the US someone needs a transfusion every two seconds. In Russia, this procedure is performed annually required at least 1.5 million inhabitants, that is, more than 4,000 people per day, or almost three per minute. Donor blood and its components are necessary for patients after complex operations and severe injuries, in maternity hospitals for women who have lost too much blood during childbirth, for sick with anemia, thrombocytopenia and other hematopoietic diseases, as well as oncological patients.
Childbirth and complex operations occur constantly, and serious diseases, including cancer, require regular treatment. That is why blood transfusion stations are called upon to donate blood not after some terrible catastrophe has occurred, but systematically.
Not true
Only donors with a rare blood type are needed
Resources, dedicated blood donation is referred to as fear to the most common reasons why people do not go to transfusion stations. Storiesas for donors those with a rare blood type are even sent away helicopters, Also contribute popularization this stereotype.
As mentioned above, every year there are 1.5 million people in Russia need in the transfusion of blood and its components. According to statistics from the Almazov National Medical Research Center, the distribution of groups among the population such: 0 (I) - 43%, A (II) - 42%, B (III) - 11%, AB (IV) - 4%. At the same time, there are no specific pathologies that would require a blood transfusion and that would appear only in people with a certain group, so we can assume that the distribution of patients who require a transfusion is approximately the same. This means that per year blood and its components in Russia are required by approximately 645,000 people with the first blood group (0), 630,000 with the second (A), 165,000 with the third (B), 60,000 with the fourth.
These calculations are simplified, since when transfusing taken into account not only the blood group according to the AB0 classification, but also other parameters, for example the Rh factor. In simplified understanding This is the presence or absence of Rh antigens on the surface of erythrocytes (red blood cells). Among them, antigen D has the strongest immunogenic properties - precisely by possibilities red blood cells attach to it, people are divided into Rh-positive and Rh-negative. If the blood of the donor and recipient does not match on this basis, then in the vast majority of cases the transfusion will lead to complications. Antigens C, c, E and e are less immunogenic, but most people still have at least one of them.
The rarest, so-called “golden” blood group is scientifically called Rhnull. Its owners do not have any Rh antigens on the surface of their red blood cells, which makes this blood the rarest on the planet. In 2022 in the world there were only 43 people with “golden” blood, nine of them which they are actively renting it out. It turns out that for one such donor there are slightly less than five potential (and not those actually in need now) recipients. If donors and potential recipients were correlated in the same way on the scale of, for example, Russia, then there would be 30 million people in the donor registry (in 2022, blood passed 1.4 million Russians).
Thus, people with “golden” blood are provided with donor material much better than those who have a more common group. In addition, the more common a blood type is in a population, the more blood of that particular type is needed.
Not true
Most donated blood is disposed of
In addition to the belief that their blood is not needed, people often refuse to donate pushes away the idea that donating blood is enough useless procedure, since significant some of the collected material does not have time to be used and is simply throw away. Resources about blood transfusion and transfusiologists cite this fear as one of the most common myths about donation.
Donor blood is too valuable a substance that, after completing the collection procedure, it will soon be thrown into the trash. In addition, blood is not a perishable product. Its most “short-lived” components are red blood cells; they are useful only for 42 days after collection, and the harvested plasma can be used after three years.
However, in some cases, blood and its components can actually be utilized - for example, red blood cells received from a Kell-positive donor (in the body of a Kell-negative recipient they will cause extremely serious consequences). At the same time, a Kell-positive person is still Maybe be a donor of plasma, platelets or cryoprecipitate (a blood component that promotes the formation of a fibrin clot and is therefore needed for transfusion to patients with hemophilia).
Blood classification by Kell system similar to division according to the Rh factor - antigens on the surface of the red blood cell also play a key role. The most significant of the antigens of this system is the K antigen, which meets in less than 10% of people. However, unlike Rhesus, whether a patient is Kell positive or negative is rarely determined in everyday life. For example, when hospitalizing a patient for surgery, the doctor will most likely foresee the potential need for transfusion of blood and its components, but will only determine the group and Rh factor. Most people are Kell negative, as is all blood in donor banks; If such blood is transfused to a Kell-positive person, no unwanted reactions will occur. Therefore, only donors and women who have encountered certain complications during pregnancy usually know their Kell factor (if the Kell factor does not match in the mother and fetus, certain pathologies are possible).
Blood and any components prepared from it are also disposed of if the donor does not come for a mandatory re-test. Blood taken from a donor is required research for hepatitis B and C, syphilis and HIV. However, if infection occurred shortly before the sample was submitted, then there will still be no traces of infection in the sample (for example, for HIV there is a “window period” when the virus has already entered the body, but is not yet detected in the blood, amounts to three months). That is why from primary donors require take tests again, they are usually prescribed through four or six months after donating blood. If the donor does not come at the specified time, then the blood taken from him and its components are disposed of. The same thing happens if tests reveal markers of hepatitis B or C, syphilis or HIV.
There are no other significant reasons for disposing of already collected donor blood. However, there have been cases in history when too much of it was harvested and some was subsequently destroyed. The largest scandal, associated with excess procurement of donor blood, occurred after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States. Then the Red Cross called on Americans to become donors, and hundreds of thousands of people responded. As it turned out later, although a huge amount of blood was prepared, not all of it turned out to be suitable: the organization did not have enough technical reserves to freeze and preserve the entire donated volume. In addition, most of the victims received injuries incompatible with life, and they simply did not need donor blood. This situation also well illustrates the thesis presented above - it is better not to time blood donation to coincide with a major tragedy, but to donate it regularly.
Mostly not true
You can become infected with various diseases while donating blood.
Many in donation scares away probability get infected during the procedure, various dangerous diseases such as HIV, syphilis and hepatitis B and C. O such fears among potential donors regularly report centers transfusion blood.
As mentioned above, before donating blood, potential donors are tested for viral hepatitis B and C, HIV and syphilis, and they will be allowed to participate in the procedure only if the tests show a negative result. Moreover, repeated tests are also provided, until the results of which are received, the donated plasma, which could potentially contain viruses, is quarantined (according to Russian standards) laws, it lasts 120 days). So the likelihood that donated blood will contain viral agents of diseases transmitted blood-contact way, reduced to a minimum.
The risk of becoming infected with something is even lower for the donor himself if he comes to the station healthy. For blood collection used a special sterile needle connected to a disposable bag, which is supplied in a sealed bag. Once the procedure is completed, this bag is detached and the needle cannot be reused. If a medical worker follows all protocols and does not intend to specifically infect the donor or recipient with any disease, the likelihood of such adverse consequences tends to zero.
Not true
Donation is addictive
Distributed the opinion that organism gradually gets used to it to regular bloodshed and starts develop more blood than he himself needs. Therefore, regular donors are not so much people who understand the importance of donation, but are literally “hooked on the needle.” To indicate such a problem even use the phrase “chronic donor syndrome”.
To understand whether such a syndrome can, in principle, arise, it is necessary to find out how the body functions under conditions of regular blood donation. The human hematopoietic system does not know how to work “with reserve”, that is, the body is not able to adapt and produce blood for future use every few months. The volume that is taken from the donor is confiscated from the circulating blood - that’s why it’s so importantso that the donor has sufficient body weight, an adequate level of hemoglobin and is not depleted by a previous disease. Typically, at a transfusion station, 450 ml of blood is taken from one person at a time, that is, approximately 10% of the total blood contained in the body (an average of 4.5–5 liters of blood). There is no evidence that regular donors have increased their volume to 5–5.5 liters four to six months after donation. Restoring the donated volume takes some time: one to two days will recover the liquid part of the blood (plasma), and its components will be needed up to a month.
In addition, there are strict rules governing the intervals between blood donations. In Russia for men allowed donate whole blood no more than five times a year, for women - no more than four. Similar mandatory pauses between donations have been established for those who want to regularly donate individual blood components. If donors' bodies could learn and produce blood in reserve, these intervals would not be necessary.
At the same time, donation, like other altruistic actions, can give a person satisfaction and a sense of personal usefulness. Scientists from the University of Witten/Herdecke (Germany) studied psychological state of those who regularly donate blood, and found that on average they feel happier and more satisfied with life than representatives of their same socio-economic group who do not visit transfusion stations.
Not true
Donation leads to depletion of iron reserves in the body and anemia
Among others, widespread fear that blood donation drains the body's iron reserves are so strong that the donor develops anemia.
Anemia is state, which occurs as a result of a decrease in the number of red blood cells and dysfunction of the hemoglobin protein contained in them. Hemoglobin allows oxygen to be transported from the lungs and delivered to all parts of the body; if this protein is not enough, the person suffers from oxygen starvation. Anemia is not a specific disease, but a symptom that is characteristic of many other pathologies and disorders. It can occur during pregnancy, with cancer, and various infections. There are usually three causes of anemia: extensive blood loss, insufficient production of red blood cells, and excessive destruction of red blood cells.
To create hemoglobin in the body required iron. Normally, after the death of a red blood cell, the iron from it remains in the body and is reused to create a new protein. However, during blood sampling, red blood cells leave the body along with the iron they contain. One donation – 450 ml – confiscates 200–250 mg of this substance are excreted from the body. This is quite a significant amount, since the average person per day capable absorb only 1–2 mg of iron. Therefore, scientists are seriously concerned about the likelihood of iron deficiency anemia in donors.
In 2012, American scientists under the auspices of the Red Cross held study of 2425 blood donors, both primary and regular. Based on the results of two years of observation of these donors, it turned out that regular blood donation leads to the development of iron deficiency in approximately half of men and two thirds of women, if they do not take special medications. In 2013, a similar study organized Dutch scientists - they observed 5280 blood donors and estimated an increase in the risk of anemia at 5–25%, depending on the parameter analyzed. Even larger groups of donors were studied Canadian And Danish scientists. The first estimated a sample of 12,595 donors, and the second - another 15,197. Both studies showed that regular donors have a higher risk of iron deficiency in the body, especially young women who lose iron due to regular menstruation. All experts agree that the risk of iron deficiency and anemia for donors is higher than the population average.
However, donation does not necessarily lead to such undesirable effects. Many other factors contribute to anemia, including an iron-poor diet. That's why resources about transfusion blood constantly write that donors should eat a varied diet, and to restore their body, minimum time intervals between donations are established. Also, no one will allow a person with low hemoglobin and anemia to donate blood; an analysis to determine these indicators is mandatory part of the preparation for the procedure.
Thus, the chance of developing anemia in donors is indeed higher than the average population, but blood transfusion stations are interested in the good health of these people, so they will take all precautionary measures and explain how to increase the level of iron in the body.
Half-truth
Cover image: Image by Michelle Gordon from Pixabay
Read on the topic:
- Is it true that blood type and Rh factor can change throughout life?
- Are there any confirmed cases of organ theft from living people by “black transplantologists”?
- Is it true that HIV can be transmitted through mosquito bites?
If you find a spelling or grammatical error, please let us know by highlighting the error text and clicking Ctrl+Enter.
