Blood donation

A blood donation occurs when a person voluntarily has blood drawn and used for transfusions and/or made into biopharmaceutical medications by a process called fractionation. Donation may be of whole blood, or of specific components directly. Blood banks often participate in the collection process as well as the procedures that follow it.

Although there have been outbreaks leading to people being diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), or many other names such as Icelandic disease, Tapanui Flu, and Royal Free disease, a singular infectious trigger has not been found. XMRV was once thought to be the virus causing chronic fatigue syndrome, but the research proved to be wrong and the paper retracted as it was found to be "a recombinant that had been created accidentally by earlier laboratory experiments".

At one time there was a deferral of blood transfusions in the United Kingdom (UK) and United States (US) although these recommendations are no longer found on the UK National Health Service Blood and Transplant or the US American Red Cross sites. Australia still has a prohibition.

There is no evidence that ME/CFS patients are contagious. Initial infectious trigger(s) have led to outbreaks over the years and 72% of ME/CFS patients report an onset of a viral or bacterial infection. Families, partners, and friends do not report contracting ME/CFS from someone with the disease ME/CFS or passing it on to others. Because ME/CFS can run in families, a genetic link is a recommended line of research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Prohibition
Blood donation by ME/CFS patients is banned or advised against in some countries:
 * United Kingdom: October 7, 2010, ME/CFS sufferers permanently deferred from giving blood. However, the page no longer exists. The UK National Health Service Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) advise that blood donors are assessed on the following criteria
 * Whether the donor is safe to give blood because of a medical condition which may be worsened by the act of giving blood. M.E. patients may not be able to compensate for the rapid removal of 15% of their blood volume, including iron, from their circulatory system. Healthy individuals are not normally affected by giving blood.
 * Whether the blood donated is safe for transfusion for the recipient.
 * Whether components such as haemoglobin and clotting factors in the donor’s blood are of a suitable quality for the blood product. A phone call to the information NHSTB information line had stated "The reason people with M.E. can’t give blood is for the first reason; that it may affect our M.E. in that it could cause a worsening of our health if we are currently unwell, or a relapse if our health has improved. This is also given as the reason in Dr Barnes’ article in Blood and Transplant Matters [Barnes S. Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and Donor Exclusion. Blood and Transplant Matters" The NHSBT page can no longer be found and a search on the site does not provide results.


 * United States: When XMRV was believed to be the infectious agent causing CFS, the US Red Cross announced a halt of blood donations from patients. However, it was found XMRV was not involved in CFS. "Recombinant that had been created accidentally by earlier laboratory experiments and that contamination with mouse DNA was common in PCR reagents, and both of the original papers had been retracted." The Red Cross announcement and recommendation pages prohibiting blood donations from CFS patients no longer exist.
 * Australia: "Because we don’t know the cause of this serious, debilitating disease, we can’t rule out that it is caused by a transmissible infection that medical science hasn’t discovered yet. We also don’t know the potential health effects of long-term blood donation on people who have suffered chronic fatigue syndrome."

Patient concerns
Patient Joan Irvine wrote to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in early 1992 expressing concern at her belief she had contracted Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS) (also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and now ME/CFS) after blood transfusion in 1987 (she committed suicide in 1996). The CDC replied to her stating "However since ongoing research indicates an infectious agent may be involved in some cases of CFS it would seem prudent to refrain from donating blood until this issue is resolved".

There could be risk of infection if a subset of ME/CFS patients were found to have an infectious disease cause. Margaret Williams has written about this subject.