IOD is proud to say that after years of working on the problem we have finally made a difference. Since April 1999 the Committee on Blood Safety and Availability has removed the necessity to label hemochromatosis blood for donor use. Now blood banks may apply for a variance from the FDA to use this blood without labeling.
For years this blood could be used as donor blood but it had to be labeled that it came from a hemochromatosis patient - Code of Federal Regulation Title 21, 640.3 (d). This is still in place for all blood banks.
IOD thinks that the blood banks are the best setting for therapeutic phlebotomies. Because they have the latest equipment and staffs well trained in the process. If they are using this as donor blood then there is no charge to the patient or insurance company. To qualify, this blood will have to meet all other criteria for safety.
Most blood banks are throwing away the phlebotomized blood, even while they complain of severe shortages. This blood is not iron rich as is supposed. This blood, which is given more frequently, has longer lived cells and is excellent transfusion blood for those severe anemia patients who need it. The transfusions are of course themselves iron loading and used only for the most severe cases of anemia. So there is a great benefit to reducing the frequency of the transfusions.
IOD issued a challenge to American blood banking to measure donor's iron as is done in Sweden. This challenge was issued June 2001 at a workshop sponsored by the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Sweden also has used phlebotomies as donor blood since 1984. The blood banks in Sweden are even screening for hemochromatosis.
List of U.S. blood banks that are
now using hemochromatosis blood as donor blood
Organized Alphabetically by State
| Phoenix/Mesa, AZ Tucson, AZ San Diego, CA * San Francisco, CA Denver, CO Newark, DE Gainesville, FL Orlando, FL West Palm Beach, FL Ames, IA Davenport, IA Lexington, KY Baton Rouge, LA Lowell, MA Northampton, MA Annapolis, MD Bethesda, MD Minneapolis, MN |
Springfield, MO Charlotte, NC Raleigh, NC Morristown, NJ East Orange, NJ Bronx, NY Holbrook, NY New York, NY Oklahoma City, OK Providence, RI Greenville, SC Sioux Falls, SD Knoxville, TN Memphis, TN Amarillo, TX Ogden, UT Seattle, WA Spokane, WA |
* Also Woodland Hills but you have to be a member of
Kaiser HMO to participate as a donor
at these locations.
The Red Cross Association of Blood Banks has announced at our
22nd annual Symposium in
Santa Cruz 2005 that they will start accepting hemochromatosis blood as donor
blood. This process will begin the Northwest Region, basically Oregon and
Washington States, and will eventually roll out across the country as a national
policy. We are happy to report this as this is something we have
accomplished after years of effort.
Copyright © 2002 by Iron Overload Diseases Association, Inc. - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED