Abstract
Many countries currently witness a decline in the number of blood donors and, consequently, a decrease in supply of blood and blood components dedicated for clinical use. To improve the situation one of the measures taken is to qualify for blood donation people with diagnosed hereditary hemochromatosis (HH) — a genetic disorder that leads to iron overload, most effectively treated by frequent bloodletting to eliminate the excess of iron. Blood from therapeutic phlebotomy is often discarded. Reservations and doubts related to the clinical use of this blood are primarily related to additional factors that affect its safety. However, there is currently no convincing evidence that blood from HH donors exposes recipients to higher risk. Reservations are also raised regarding organizational challenge and costs as well as ethical concerns regarding the voluntary nature of donations. In Poland — according to current regulations — HH individuals are deferred from donating blood during the onset of disease symptoms or in the course of treatment other than phlebotomy. The decision regarding blood donation as well as frequency of subsequent donations is made by the physician in the unit of the public health service in cooperation with the doctor responsible for therapy of hemochromatosis. Guidelines regarding this group of potential blood donors markedly differ from country to country therefore numerous publications emphasize the need to develop a set of uniform, optimal regulations based on the outcome of available research.
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