Blood donation facilities nationwide passed inspections, authorities announced yesterday, adding that people need to follow proper practices to ensure safe and effective blood donations.
To ensure the safety of blood donors and recipients, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said a team of dozens of experts on clinical medicine and medical examinations inspected the nation’s five blood donation centers and 13 blood donation stations between July and August.
The five blood donation centers are in Taipei, Taichung, Tainan, Kaohsiung and Hsichu County.
The nation’s blood donation rate has exceeded 5 percent — the minimum recommended by the WHO — since 1991, and last year reached 7.49 percent, the FDA said, adding that the government in 2005 passed the Plasma Derivatives Act (血液製劑條例) to protect blood quality and the safety of donors and recipients.
The Taiwan Blood Services Foundation said people should be between 17 and 65 years old to donate blood, adding that male donors must weigh at least 50kg, while female donors must weigh at least 45kg.
Women should avoid donating blood during their menses, while pregnant or within six months after pregnancy, they said.
People who have had unsafe sex — sexual encounters with strangers, sex with more than one partner, or work in the sex industry — in the past year, as well as people with hepatitis B or hepatitis C should avoid donating blood, they said, adding that people should not donate blood within eight hours of consuming alcohol, within 72 hours of teeth extraction, within one week of taking medication (including aspirin) and within two weeks of having an injection.
It also urged blood donors to get sufficient sleep and try not to eat greasy food before donation, adding that donors should wait for at least two months to donate again after giving 250cc of blood and at least three months after donating 500cc of blood.
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