Fact: I donated blood before I knew I had Lyme disease, possibly contaminating whoever recieved my donation.
I immediately felt guilty once I learned of my diagnosis, even though I had been fighting for a reason for my pain for years. How could such a well-intentioned act turn into something that is potentially life-threatening for another human?
Once I finally got over the guilt, I was more incredulous:
I can’t believe they don’t test for tick-bourne illnesses in donated blood, just like they test for other types of bacteria (?!)
Then I heard about the amount of Babesia, another tick-borne illness, in the blood supply in New England and I can’t deny it: I was infuriated.
Ostensibly, two to five cases of Babesia reported to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health per year are the result of blood transfusions! Babesia is the number one infectious disease caused by blood transfusions in the United States.
Is there light at the end of the tunnel? I think so.
As the Vinyard Gazette reports, the American Red Cross Rhode Island chapter has started screening donated blood for Babesia as a pilot program. They have been communicating with the FDA on their results, with the aim that the FDA will soon require certain areas of the United States to screen all of their blood samples for this tick-bourne illness.
I suspect that this will mainly effect the New England blood supply, but my hope is that eventually all donated blood throughout the United States will be screened. Lyme may have began in the northeast, but as we now know, almost half of the counties in the United States have ticks that carry Lyme and other bacteria.
