Topic: What about Lyme Disease in the BLOOD SUPPLY?
Jim Bayliss
Unregistered
posted
It came to me, while posting on another topic here:
WHAT ABOUT LYME CONTAMINATED BLOOD SUPPLY?
Since Lyme is a much bigger epidemic right now, and growing by leaps and bounds, than HIV; what about Lyme Disease in the current blood supply of this nation?
IS ALL blood tested for Lyme?
Many people get it LONG BEFORE they realize they have it and I would imagine that MANY have given blood without knowing they had Lyme. Maybe for years.
The newest LYME DISEASE UPDATE: SCIENECE, POLICY, AND LAW by Cohen 2004, found in left hand column of resources/books, etc......
states America's blood supply meets the criteria of DEPT. OF DEFENSE's standards...... if you have been FREE OF LYME FOR 1 YEAR, then you can give blood; if not....you can't give blood.
They don't do a special testing for lyme; I asked our local hospital CEO.
So for a lyme patient, we don't want to donate blood, bone marrow, organs/tissues.
Eye bank in Iowa told me they would accept corneas but lyme has affected my eyes badly, so I wouldn't want to donate mine knowing that.
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posted
Thats makes me feel all warm and safe but what about all the people that have lyme and go undiagnosed for years! I had lyme for at least 10 years before I was diagnosed. When I got my Ignex Westen Blot back it was MOST of the bands were very postive. Yet I know i gave blood many times when I was in college for the cash. My sis has all the Neuro symtoms that would make a lymie say dude, get tested! but I know she donates blood. Since its so hard to get tested wouldn't it make sense that there are a bunch of people in the population donating lyme postive blood?????
Posts: 31 | From Los Angeles, Ca | Registered: Oct 2005
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posted
I gave blood 3 times before I got diagnosed, but was ill and didn't know it. I have Lyme and Babesiosis. I ended up working for The American Red Cross, and they had to track where my blood went, so hopefully they could notify the recipients that they may have Lyme and Babesiosis, too.
Posts: 37 | From Jamestown, NY | Registered: Oct 2005
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Jim Bayliss
Unregistered
posted
Yes, and WE are only talking about a FEW people here. We ALL know someone who has given blood. MY wife has many times. I don't know IF she still does or not. She knows I don't like it so probably wouldn't tell me NOW IF she did.
I have never give it or taken it, so have NOT transmitted ANY bad diseases that way. BUT what about her? IF Lyme can be transmitted sexually or through saliva, she MAY have it from me, and COULD be transmitting it through blood transfusions.
WHO knows? HOW many from here on out are going to spend $250 or more to be tested BEFORE they give blood to the Red Cross? I don't know of any.
Andie333
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 7370
posted
Jim, We had about a dozen people over for a potluck dinner last night. Several of them had not seen me since I started Lyme treatment in June.
At one point, the conversation turned to the Lyme epidemic. There were several therapists and a school counselor, who were especially interested in how Lyme manifests psychologically and neurologically...and how quickly it seems to be spreading, especially here in PA.
Anyway, several people made the comparison between Lyme and the AIDS epidemic...and we were all talking about this getting into the blood supply.
I went udx for Lyme for at least 9 years. In that period, as others have said, I gave blood more than a half dozen times. I had NO idea I had this disease.
It's a topic that really concerns me; I also don't see this changing anytime soon...at least not until the CDC modifies its Lyme disease profile.
Andie
Posts: 2549 | From never never land | Registered: May 2005
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Carol in PA
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 5338
posted
I had "organ donor" added to my driver's license.
After I tested positive for Lyme Disease, I blocked it out with permanent marker and also wrote a note on my emergency information card.
I'm willing to bet that Borrelia is a common contaminant in the blood and organ supply.
Carol
Posts: 6947 | From Lancaster, PA | Registered: Feb 2004
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JillF
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 5553
posted
Babesia has been found in the blood supply.
If I can find the link off of here, I will add it.
So, why couldn't Lyme or other tickborne diseases also be in the blood supply?
I am 99.9% sure (as is my husband and LLMD) that my husband contacted Lyme from me.
Posts: 1485 | From USA | Registered: Apr 2004
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SForsgren
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 7686
posted
My opinion is that there is no doubt that Lyme could be found in the blood supply. I'd have to dig and find references, but I know that I have heard LLMDs on various conference audio and DVD recordings mention that Lyme has been found in the blood supply.
-------------------- Be well, Scott Posts: 4617 | From San Jose, CA | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
The blood supply is NOT safe!! Not even close!! I am no longer a possible organ donor either. I told my husband I didn't want to give ANYONE this dreaded disease!
-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96222 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
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Jim Bayliss
Unregistered
posted
Thanks everyone for all your insight.
It just came to me out of the blue and I was wondering IF anyone else had thought or heard about it.
It just stands to reason that it has to be in it. AND it MUST be spreading like wildfire. The sad part is most of the ducks out there just give it indiscriminately, JUST IN CASE. Many people don't even really need it. As a matter of fact it has been proven in MANY cases that a person actually heals faster without it.
And NOW their body has something else to fight. PROBABLY worse than what it had to fight initially.
Good for those of you that have recognized what you have and the damage YOU could cause by donating it to someone else. TOO bad the ducks aren't as humble and honest.
posted
"Hello everyone", Sad but true, there's no telling what's in our Blood Supply. I was a Blood/Organ donor at one time, before I found out I have Lyme. I stress the need to have our Doctors educated, example: asked my G.P.if it was safe for me to give blood this Holiday Season her response was,of course you can. Thank goodness the Red Cross in my area was real leary about taken my blood after I had explained my medical history. Is cost a factor for not making it mandatory for testing for Lyme in our Blood Supply??????? "Peace be with us all",Robin
Posts: 139 | From Panama City, FL., USA | Registered: Jun 2005
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posted
Over the years, when my diagnosis was "Fibromyalgia", I gave a gallon and a half of blood. That was in the eighties. Fibromyalgia patients were acceptable donors to the Red Cross. There were other Fibromyalgia patients giving blood. There are more who have Lyme-like diseases, now. The blood situation has to be much worse now.
A few years back a patient got "MS" from a blood transfusion. As far as I know the medical profession did not follow up on it because it was considered a fluke.
Anyone going in for an operation should, over time, give their own blood to be stored in the event it's needed.
Worthless tests & labs, a dangerous vaccine, insurance companies refuse to pay, undertreatment the norm, all about money. MO. Posts: 281 | From CT | Registered: Oct 2005
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Melanie Reber
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 3707
People were enlightened two years ago, but as with MOST real good info it had fallen by the wayside and the general public is STILL no better off. Probably worse now as the blood supply gets more and more tainted.
It is no wonder people like Dr. J. are in trouble. The Powers that BE don't want to see the percussions IF it is proven that chronic Lyme CAN'T be "cured" in the 30 days or less of antibiotics like they have their ducks believing.
AND they DO believe it. Even here where Lyme is at epidemic proportions, along with Minnesota and Michigan.
SAD, but true!
Myself, I wonder WHY so many are hell bent on blood transfusions anyway.
I nearly bled to death back in 1994, because my duck was treating me for diverticulitus instead of the Chronic Acute Colitus that I actually had at that time.
I refused a blood transfusion. I am still here to talk about it. I was so bad that I persoanally didn't care IF I died or not. I really didn't want to live feeling the way I did. I told the surgeon so, when he said I had to be operated on right then, or I would NOT be alive the next morning. (I had lost too much blood).
They had to do the operations in two phases. One in July and one in November AFTER I had built up my strength enough to survive it.
Like one of my physicians once told me many years before that, that the ONLY real reason to have a transfusion is for like lieukemia or other blood disease like that. Otherwise like in MY case, there are many, many other alternatives, such as salene solutions, etc..
It is also a PROVEN FACT that people heal MUCH faster without a tranfusion. That way the body doesn't have to fight OTHER things besides the problem at hand. (Things LIKE Lyme disease).
posted
Yep,, JB is right... A military doc told me the same... I don't give or take blood. I told a Doc once that wanted my blood (I have a rare type) that if I would get 60% of what they charge then OK.. He said no way and I said go away....
Why should I gave away something at risk that they charge for??? You can get AIDs from dirty needles...
And lord knows what's in the blood supply now that everyone kisses dogs (might as well kiss the rear end) and no telling what else.
I got a feeling that humans gave the ticks Lyme as Lyme and syph are very similar...
Tj
Posts: 192 | From Phoenix, AZ | Registered: Apr 2005
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JimBoB
Unregistered
posted
You MAY be correct, Tj, you never know for sure WHERE Lyme came from to begin with. Many of the viruses and bacteria have changed forms through the years to be able to cope with the changing conditions of this world we live in. Caused by MANKIND.
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posted
I thnk it's almost surely a huge problem. Almost surely there are people with lyme who were infexcted through the blood supply. But they are more careful than they once were. I was told I could never give blood again, having had babesiosis. Lyme seems like it should be in the same category. It is kind of a quandary, I think-- I've heard than genererally they need more blood than they can get, but I'm not sure of this. Maybe they should classify blood from people with diseases like lyme as "absolute last resort category" blood. DaveS
Posts: 4567 | From ithaca, NY, usa | Registered: Nov 2000
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posted
Another angle to this concerns some of us who are of the female persuasion, with RH negative blood. At the end of a pregnancy, at the baby's birth or after a miscarriage (or, actually, abortion), women who are RH negative have a shot of Rhogam, which prevents extreme problems, often fatal, for the NEXT baby. Rhogam is a blood product.
I had Rhogam after my children were born in '86, '90 and '92. Then, I got pregnant in 2001 (at the age of 49) and, when I started to lose the baby, the midwives gave me Rhogam. WHY? What were the chances of a woman my age having a healthy baby? Nil, absolutely nil.
I was so emotionally deluded by my hopes for the baby I was losing, I didn't pay enough attention to what they were doing (normally I'm pretty vigilant).
I wish I had not had that shot, because that is exactly when I started to get really sick. A few months later, I could not feel my arms or left side of face, slurred speech, etc. and have been on abx ever since.
Now, most women who are RH negaitve do not have the option of saying no to Rhogam, unless they are planning on having their tubes tied. The risk of lyme and all kinds of other mysterious contaminants of the blood supply need to be balanced against the health or survival of their next baby, which is not a choice anyone can make.
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quote:Originally posted by JimBoB: Lymeloco: VERY good on the Mass URL you put up too. HOW do I email that to someone? Jim
Click on the link Highlight the web address Copy the address (right click and choose copy) Open your email program Paste in the body of the email (right click and choose paste)
-------------------- Peggy
~ ~ Hope is a powerful medicine. ~ ~ Posts: 2775 | From MN | Registered: Apr 2001
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JimBoB
Unregistered
posted
Hey Pab, thanks loads. I always wondered HOW people did that, but never asked before. Glad I did. Jim
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