Psoriasis and donating blood

[Fred]

I used to give blood many years ago but as soon as I started taking oral treatments for P they told me to bog off.

Only fair Dave. I wouldn't want a blood transfusion from blood that had that poison going through it.

[Kat]

I used to have problems with iron and the doctors told me not to donate, and now I haven't reached my 5 years off acitretin mark yet so can't give blood.... I didn't know for sure about the biologics until reading this thread as I didn't remember the doctor or any of the literature mentioning not donating. It's a shame too as I have O- blood that anyone can take and wouldn't mind giving but I've never been a good candidate (well except when I was younger and took so much for granted I didn't think about such things).

Interesting thread Fred, glad you brought it up!

[Caroline]

A bit of statistics. I put it here, as I think this is the most relevant place.


At every cm2 of your skin there are living 2000 bacteria. Your and my mouth contain more than 600 different types of bacteria. Dent plaque (on your teeth) consists for more than 50% of bacteria. 1 cubic cm of dental plaque can contain as much as 10 000 000 000 bacteria.
In your intestines are living about 100 trillion of bacteria. You have 10 times as much bacteria in your intestines as there are cells in your body. So basically a human consists for 90% out of bacteria and for 10% out of well .... human.

You cell phone (or Freds wall-phone) contains on average 18 times as much bacteria as there are on the doorknob of a public toilet. And according to the University of London, 14% of the paper money contains as much bacteria as a dirty toilet pot.
Still about 60% of the people do admit: "I never wash my hands before dinner."

I mean..... one could imagine that there is a tiny relationship between Psoriasis and bacteria as they are so overwhelmingly around us people.

[Fred]

Interesting thread Fred, glad you brought it up!

Yes me too I had never thought about it before. Makes you wonder how many others with different medical conditions and treatments can't donate blood too, it also reminds you of how precious it is.

@Caroline I'm not sure what it has to do with donating blood, but interesting none the less.

[Caroline]

Interesting thread Fred, glad you brought it up!

Yes me too I had never thought about it before. Makes you wonder how many others with different medical conditions and treatments can't donate blood too, it also reminds you of how precious it is.

@Caroline I'm not sure what it has to do with donating blood, but interesting none the less.

The link is that you might transfer things with a bloodtransfusion, the most obvious are bacteria and viruses.

[Fred]

Interesting thread Fred, glad you brought it up!

Yes me too I had never thought about it before. Makes you wonder how many others with different medical conditions and treatments can't donate blood too, it also reminds you of how precious it is.

@Caroline I'm not sure what it has to do with donating blood, but interesting none the less.

The link is that you might transfer things with a bloodtransfusion, the most obvious are bacteria and viruses.

Interesting. So difficult this blood donation thing.

[Caroline]

Interesting thread Fred, glad you brought it up!

Yes me too I had never thought about it before. Makes you wonder how many others with different medical conditions and treatments can't donate blood too, it also reminds you of how precious it is.

@Caroline I'm not sure what it has to do with donating blood, but interesting none the less.

The link is that you might transfer things with a bloodtransfusion, the most obvious are bacteria and viruses.

Interesting. So difficult this blood donation thing.  

Certainly, I guess that is why they are being very careful. But you never know if that is enough.
E.g., maybe it is kept out the the news, but it might be very well true that in the past HIV has been transferred by blood transfusions.

[Fred]

E.g., maybe it is kept out the the news, but it might be very well true that in the past HIV has been transferred by blood transfusions.

I know this is true for a fact. RE: Psoriasis and donating blood

Without going into to much detail. Someone close to our family needed a blood transfusion at a young age after an accident and it did save his life. But it also gave him HIV (AIDS) and he died of the AIDS virus about 10 years later. It was very sad as it was around the time that people had a fear of Gay's.

He was not Gay by the way and all because of an accident his last few years of life as a young man was not nice, not only for the AIDS but also because people at the time thought only Gay Men got AIDS. We now know this is not true, but it is true that it can be passed on via blood donations and you are probably right it was kept out of the news.

[D Foster]

I think that because we have become paranoid about germs and use all sorts of antiseptics to sterilise everything kids don't come into contact with germs etc and they are getting susceptible today to all sorts including allergies.

[Fred]

I think that because we have become paranoid about germs and use all sorts of antiseptics to sterilise everything kids don't come into contact with germs etc and they are getting susceptible today to all sorts including allergies.

Good point. We never had the problems the kids have today, whilst I find it sad that young people have so many allergies it does make me wonder why we didn't get them years ago.

Peanut and Gluten where never a problem, but today they are. I have to ask Why ?