title: Blood donor well-being: a primary responsibility of blood collection agencies.
abstract: Current FDA regulations and AABB standards do not adequately protect the well-being of blood donors. Several practices have adverse consequences for donors, including: elevated incidence of donation related reactions and injuries, iron deficiency anemia in premenopausal women, and inadequate counseling of donors to obtain medical follow-up for health risks identified during pre-donation health screening. These practices can be improved without impacting negatively on the national blood supply. In addition to revising current blood collection operations, blood centers should explore the feasibility of establishing expanded donor health screening programs and determining their effectiveness in improving donor health, donor recruitment, and donor retention.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA. rfr1@columbia.edu
authors.forename: Robert F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Reiss
mesh_terms: D001782:Blood Donors; D001800:Blood Specimen Collection / Q000592:standards*; D006262:Health; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic