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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is advising consumers and health care providers that directed blood donations requested for certain donor characteristics (e.g., vaccination status, gender, sexual orientation, religion) lack scientific support and to be cautious about websites that offer memberships for delivery of blood and blood components from individuals who have not been vaccinated for COVID-19.    

Summary of the Issue

FDA is aware that some blood establishments and hospitals have received requests from patients who need a blood transfusion and wish to receive directed donations only from personally chosen relatives, friends, or other individuals with certain characteristics (e.g., specific gender, sexual orientation, vaccination status, or religion). Such directed blood donations lack scientific support.   

There is no evidence that directed donation provides safer blood and blood components for transfusion. All blood donors must be found eligible to donate blood for others under FDA regulations (21 CFR Part 630) and all donations intended for transfusion [...]

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration finalized recommendations for assessing blood donor eligibility using a set of individual risk-based questions to reduce the risk of transfusion-transmitted HIV. Read More….

https://www.hhs.gov/blog/2023/01/11/giving-blood-saves-lives.html

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2800275

https://www.aabb.org/docs/default-source/default-document-library/resources/individual-risk-assessment-dhq-example-model-using-canadas-eligibility-criteria.pdf

https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eoDetails?rrid=290316

Click to View and Download Document

This document is a Request of Proposal (“RFP”) for legislative affairs representation and administrative services on issues relating to blood services coalition administration.

Blood Centers of California (BCC) is seeking proposals for strategic advice and legislative representation (lobbying) services as well as administrative management for our coalition. Contract terms desired is for one (1) year, with an option to renew for an additional one (1) year term.

Additionally, BCC is seeking proposals for administrative management of the coalition including website upkeep, meeting scheduling, agenda preparation and recording and distributing meeting minutes.

Please submit an electronic copy of your proposal no later than August 31, 2022 to:

Susan Noone, President, Blood Centers of California

snoone @vitalant.org

Blood Centers of California

I. Introduction

Blood Centers of California (BCC) is an alliance of 11 non-profit blood centers, located throughout the state. BCC members supply more than 1.4 million units of blood and blood [...]

San Diego Blood Bank recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the opening of a ninth donation center. The new Chula Vista location replaces a temporary donation site that opened in December 2020 in Chula Vista’s Terra Nova Plaza to help collect blood at the height of the pandemic. During the ribbon-cutting ceremony, the San Diego Woman’s Club presented the blood bank with a check for $25,000 to support the needs of this new site. Speakers included San Diego Blood Bank Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Doug Morton and Sharp Chula Vista CEO, Dr. Pablo Velez. This new location is expected to collect more than 400 donations each month, potentially impacting more than 114,000 lives every year. (Source: San Diego Blood Bank Announcement, 6/8/22) 

View the statement issued by AABB, America’s Blood Centers and the American Red Cross regarding the status of the nation’s blood supply

View the statement issued by AABB, America’s Blood Centers and the American Red Cross regarding the status of the nation’s blood supply

View Statement from AABB, America’s Blood Centers and American Red Cross

http://www.aabb.org/Pages/default.aspx

https://covidplasma.org/

https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/Immunization/ncov2019.aspx

CDC continues to study the spread and effects of the novel coronavirus across the United States.  We now know from recent studies that a significant portion of individuals with coronavirus lack symptoms (“asymptomatic”) and that even those who eventually develop symptoms (“pre-symptomatic”) can transmit the virus to others before showing symptoms.  This means that the virus can spread between people interacting in close proximity—for example, speaking, coughing, or sneezing—even if those people are not exhibiting symptoms.  In light of this new evidence, CDC recommends wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain (e.g., grocery stores and pharmacies) especially in areas of significant community-based transmission.

It is critical to emphasize that maintaining 6-feet social distancing remains important to slowing the spread of the virus.  CDC is additionally advising the use of simple cloth face coverings to slow the spread of the virus and help people who may have the virus and do [...]

The federal government on Thursday relaxed restrictions on receiving blood donations from gay men and other groups as the country confronts a severe drop in the U.S. blood supply that officials described as urgent and unprecedented.

The Food and Drug Administration’s new rules are intended to spur a wave of donations as the coronavirus outbreak has caused donor centers to be closed and blood drives to be canceled nationwide.

Under the new policy, men who have had sex with other men will be able to give blood more quickly. Federal rules previously made such donors wait 12 months before giving blood. That wait has been shortened to three months.

LGBTQ rights advocates cautiously welcomed the policy change, saying federal officials should remove all wait times for gay men, saying such a rule stigmatizes gay and bisexual men.

“LGBTQ Americans can hold their heads up today and know that our voices will always triumph over discrimination,” said GLAAD President and [...]

https://www.cdph.ca.gov/

https://covid19.ca.gov/

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html

This page will be updated daily. Numbers close out at 4 p.m. the day before reporting.

https://www.aabb.org/press/Pages/pr200304.aspx

Bethesda, Md. – As the coronavirus outbreak continues to spread in the United States, the AABB Interorganizational Task Force on Domestic Disasters and Acts of Terrorism is urging individuals to make and keep donation appointments and organized blood drives to ensure the continued adequacy of the blood supply.

It is imperative that healthy individuals donate to minimize disruptions to the blood supply and ensure blood is available for patients. If the outbreak of coronavirus expands, additional challenges may arise, which could potentially reduce the number of eligible donors and disrupt collection events. Since it is the blood already on the shelves that saves lives, maintaining a sufficient blood supply is essential to ensure patients in need receive optimal treatment.

“We are asking potential donors, both current and first-timers, to make and keep appointments to ensure that a sufficient blood supply will continue to be available for all patients who need it,” said Brian G. Gannon, [...]

–DEET. Apply EPA-registered insect repellent containing DEET, picaridin, oil of lemon eucalyptus, or IR3535 according to label instructions.

-DAWN AND DUSK. Wear proper clothing and repellent during dawn and dusk, as those are the times mosquitoes are most likely to bite.

-DRAIN. Drain all standing water on your property, as that’s where mosquitoes lay their eggs.

Learn more: https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/OPA/Pages/NR19-020.aspx

June 27, 2019

Contact: AABB Communications 
Magda Yang 
+1.301.215.6569 

AABB Issues Recommendations to Decrease Group O Blood Overuse

Association encourages blood banks and hospitals to work together to optimize group O blood use.

Bethesda, Md. – In response to ongoing blood shortages in many regions of the United States, AABB (formerly known as the American Association of Blood Banks) this week released a series of recommendations to help blood collection facilities and hospitals decrease the overuse of group O blood. Known as “universal donors” since their blood can be transfused to any patient, individuals with group O-negative blood comprise nearly seven percent of the blood donor population but use of O-negative red blood cells accounts for nearly 11 percent of all transfused red blood cells — an unsustainable ratio that continues to threaten the stability of the nation’s blood supply.

The AABB Association Bulletin’s recommendations are particularly important as many regions in the United States [...]

California Wildfires Impacting the Blood Community

Statement from America’s Blood Centers

As the wildfires in California continue to burn, the devastation left in their wake remains including more than 60 deaths as of Thursday, November 15th.   The tragedy has displaced many more as a result of damage and/or mandatory evacuations.

This particularly hits close to home for the blood community as some employees at ABC member blood centers Northern California Community Blood Bank and Vitalant (formerly BloodSource) have been displaced as their homes and possessions were destroyed and their lives disrupted.

While fixed site locations have been spared thus far, the impact of the fires continues to alter operations as drives have been canceled and some fixed site locations temporarily closed. Currently, the blood needs of blood centers in the region are being met. The AABB Interorganizational Task Force on Domestic Disasters and Acts of Terrorism is monitoring the situation and any needs of affected [...]

Saving for Uncertain Times

The state’s Rainy Day Fund, established by a vote of the people in 2014, saves money when the economy is strong for uncertain times ahead. By the end of 2018-19, the current economic expansion will have matched the longest in post-war history. The budget fully fills the fund, growing the balance to an unprecedented $13.8 billion.

Supporting our Schools 
The budget increases funding by more than $4,600 per student over 2011-12 levels and directs $78.4 billion in funding to K-14 schools – a 66 percent increase in annual funding from seven years ago. Additionally, the state will fully implement the Local Control Funding Formula, correcting historical inequities in school district funding.

Counteracting the Effects of Poverty and Combatting Homelessness

The budget invests $5 billion to help address challenges with affordable housing and [...]

This afternoon the legislature voted on their budget and sent it to Governor Brown for his signature. The governor has 12 days to sign the budgetand has line item veto, should he wish to utilize it.

While there is a $16 billion reserve account, there are now 3 reserve accounts – rainy day which can hold 10% of GF revenues, an account for  “uncommitted reserves which hold $2 billion and a new ‘safety net reserve for social services, this account holds $200 million.

However, there is no expansion of health care or tax breaks offered to undocumented residents. SB 974 – Medi-cal access for those 65 and older and AB 2965 which provides access to Medi-cal for adults and those under age 26, both are still in committees, awaiting a hearing. No expansion of EITC for undocs.

There is an increase in K-14 education – $78 billion, $11,639 per student, $100 million one time and [...]

Local nonprofits were honored by state legislators as part of the third annual California Nonprofits Day Celebration. 

Date: June 14, 2018

Be there for someone else. Give blood. Share life.

American Health Care Act – AHCA: what can we expect?

Meet the Senators working on the Senate version of the AHCA

Meet The Republican Men Secretly Reshaping Your Health Care

The Senate’s version of the American Health Care Act is likely to be revealed Thursday. Here’s an insider’s look…

The Senate version of the AHCA is to be released sometime today.

As information is made available I will share for your review, preliminary reports state there are few “major” changes to the House version. We do know that changes are being made to Medicaid and the subsidies that allow many to pay for their coverage are being reduced. It is also stated that the individual
mandate – have to have coverage – has been removed.

Medicaid is the largest health care program in the country, higher than Medicare. It covers most of the health care in the US offered by the government – half [...]

Download the report:

May Revise 2017-2018

The Congressional Budget Office is out with its estimate of what effects the Republican health bill, “The American Health Care Act.”

Read CBO report:
http://khn.org/news/deciphering-the-cbo-estimates-on-the-gop-health-bill/

A guide to what’s covered under the Affordable Care Act and the proposed Republican healthcare plan:

http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-na-pol-obamacare-repeal/

This report summarizes 10 important contributions toward addressing the threat posed by Zika virus in 2016:

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/65/wr/mm6552e1.htm?s_cid=mm6552e1_e

Screenings in a dozen states suggest that Zika infection remains exceedingly rare:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/15/health/zika-blood-bank-tests.html?WT.mc_id=SmartBriefs-Newsletter&WT.mc_ev=click&ad-keywords=smartbriefsnl&_r=1

View the number of travel-associated infections with Zika virus in California residents in 2015 and 2016:

http://www.cdph.ca.gov/HealthInfo/discond/Documents/TravelAssociatedCasesofZikaVirusinCA.pdf

View the latest activity at the California Department of Public Health:

http://www.westnile.ca.gov/

Read Article at WSJ.com:

The Rising Risk of a Contaminated Blood Supply

The Food and Drug Administration announced on Tuesday that it would scrap a decades-old lifetime prohibition on blood donation by gay and bisexual men, a change that experts said was long overdue and could lift the annual blood supply by as much as 4 percent.

The F.D.A. enacted the ban in 1983, early in the AIDS epidemic. At the time, little was known about the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes the disease, and there was no quick test to determine whether somebody had it. But science — and the understanding of H.I.V. in particular — has advanced in the intervening decades, and on Tuesday the F.D.A. acknowledged as much, lifting the lifetime ban but keeping in place a block on donations by men who have had sex with other men in the last 12 months.

Read Article:
F.D.A. to Lift Lifetime Ban on Blood Donations by Gay Men

Read Article at BostonGlobe.com

FDA Panel Wary of Lifting Ban on Gay Blood Donors

Watch video:

View a new video on Guidelines for Platelet Transfusions from the AABB

Read Statement:

Joint statement on Ebola and safety of the blood supply

Read Article:

Read Article at Redcross.org

View Article:
West Nile Virus Questions & Answers

• PBSC compensation will stand, US Attorney General not filing with Supreme Court
• 9th circuit court declines to reconsider PBSC ruling
• DOJ appeal of 9th Circuit
• Flynn Plaintiffs Response to Rehearing Petition
• ABC Issues Statement on Donor Compensation in Light of 9th U.S. Circuit Ruling
• ABC Supports Voluntary Donation of Blood, Organs, and Stem Cells
• Journal Article Discusses Consequences of Compensating HSC Donors
• PBSC statement 12-14-2011
• 9th Circuit ruling on Bone Marrow
• Institute of Justice article
• NMDP opposition statement

By Erin Loury, Los Angeles Times
Chagas is a potentially fatal parasitic disease most often found in Latin American immigrants. There had been little awareness of it in the U.S., but that’s changing.

The cryptic letter arrived a few weeks after Maira Gutierrez donated blood for the first time in 1997. The Red Cross had rejected her blood. It listed a phone number to call.

Gutierrez left a message, then waited three agonizing days for a reply, fearing she had HIV. The truth proved more confusing than reassuring: She had something called Chagas’ disease, an ailment she’d never heard of, spread by a winged insect incongruously dubbed the “kissing bug.”

A Red Cross pamphlet told her the parasitic affliction could be fatal — it could stop her heart. But doctors she consulted [...]

Moving Forward

In the end, it boiled down to a complex ruling on a complex law. US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts stated that the insurance mandate in the Affordable Care Act was unconstitutional, but that Congress had the power to impose a tax on those who did not buy such insurance. While the Court’s liberal minority did not agree that the mandate was unconstitutional, they joined Justice Roberts because the net effect was that his view upheld the act. Ironically, as a presidential candidate, constitutional scholar Barack Obama opposed an insurance mandate because he questioned its validity. As president, however, he agreed to go along with the Congressional Democrats when they, in a failed bid to attract moderate Republican support, took the mandate idea from Mitt Romney’s Massachusetts healthcare overhaul.

While an important election looms that still could change the situation, our third branch of government has now endorsed [...]

GENEVA — The World Health Organization on Thursday called for more people to donate blood regularly, as the UN agency marked World Blood Donor Day.

“Every year, millions of people rely on the generosity of another person to donate blood,” the WHO said. “Yet, blood donation rates vary considerably and the demands for blood and blood products are increasing worldwide.”

“To meet these needs, more people must come forward to give blood voluntarily, and regularly,” it added.

“With increasing life expectancy and the subsequent increase in the number of age-related, chronic diseases, including cancers, that require blood and blood products for treatment, demand outstrips supply,” warned Dr Neelam Dhingra, coordinator for blood transfusion safety at the WHO. “In addition, some blood products used to treat cancer patients, like platelets, have a shelf-life of only five days. This means we increasingly need more blood donors to [...]

By Newsroom America Staff
(Newsroom America) — A blood sucking bug which can cause life-threatening digestive and heart problems may be moving further into the United States as a result of a warmer climate, according to scientists.

In the spring of 1835, Charles Darwin was bitten in Argentina by a “great wingless black bug,” he wrote in his diary.

“It is most disgusting to feel soft wingless insects, about an inch long, crawling over one’s body,” Darwin wrote, “before sucking they are quite thin, but afterwards round & bloated with blood.”

In all likelihood, Darwin’s nighttime visitor was a member of Reduviid family of insects — the so-called kissing bugs because of their habit of biting people around the mouth while they sleep.

From this attack, some infectious disease experts have speculated, the famed naturalist might have contracted Chagas disease, [...]

Read Article:

Transfusion Results Same for Stored, Fresh Red Cells

Read Article:

Blood Centers Screen Young Donors for Health Risk Factors

Read Article:

Joint Statement before the Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability Donor Deferral for Men Who Have Had Sex with Another Man (MSM) – June 11, 2010