Iron deficiency anaemia in female blood donors – IBTS suspends taking blood from some women donors from today
Monday 16th November 2015
Iron deficiency anaemia in female blood donors – IBTS suspends taking blood from some women donors from today
The IBTS has decided today (Monday) to suspend taking blood donations from women who have given blood in the last 18 months, until the IBTS has checked a blood sample from each donor for haemoglobin (Hb).
“We introduced a new non-invasive point-of-care device in July 2014 to measure the haemoglobin level in blood donors prior to accepting them for donation. We have now discovered that the device gives inaccurate results in some individuals with anaemia down to, and probably below, 8.4 g/dL. As a result of the issue which has now been detected with this new device, some women, and probably a much smaller number of men, could have been rendered iron deficient and anaemic from blood donation in the past 18 months,” said IBTS Medical and Scientific Director Dr William Murphy.
“From last week we decided to introduce a full blood count on all female donors – this process is being extended to all male donors this week. Approximately 20 donors with anaemia who were not detected by the new device, prior to a unit of blood being taken last week, have all been contacted. In addition, from today and for the time being we are suspending taking blood donations from women who have already donated in the last 18 months. We will replace the current version of the device with an alternative as soon as possible. We have contacted the Health Products Regularity Authority in relation to this. This device is also in use in Austria and some blood donation clinics in Germany.
“Over the next few weeks we will introduce new software to reanalyse all the electronic results from all donors who have been tested and accepted for donation since we introduced this device. Any discrepant results will be notified to the donors involved.
“In the meantime we will ask any concerned donors who contact us to attend their GP if they are worried that they might be anaemic or iron deficient. We will meet the cost of attending their doctor and iron studies.
“This is a temporary measure while we resolve the issue that has arisen with the technology, or if this is not possible while we introduce an alternative method of Haemoglobin measurement. Until we have a resolution to the problem that has arisen, we are asking male donors to attend our clinics and give blood. We need male donors to make an extra effort to donate and maintain the blood supply. We will be double checking all Haemoglobin results on these donors,” he added.
Dr Murphy concluded, “we are confident that this issue with our new haemoglobin level measurment device has not had any impact on blood received by patients. We are determined to have this matter resolved as soon as possible”
Concerned donors can contact the IBTS at 1850 731137
ENDS
