The Lurking Danger in Your Neighborhood Blood Bank

[Guest guest]

In Today's Goodbye Lyme Newsletter Article:

 

The Lurking Danger in Your Neighborhood Blood Bank

 

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Under Our Skin

The controversial movie about Lyme disease

 

Monday August 24th, 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm

Free movie showing and discussion on the controversy

around Lyme disease at Two Frogs in Frederick, Maryland

 

Click here for more information:

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The Lurking Danger in Your Neighborhood Blood Bank

by Greg Lee / Two Frogs Healing Center

Click here for a full color version:

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Did you ever read about the Trojan War in history class?

An army of Greek warriors could not get into the city of Troy.

So they built a large wooden horse and many soldiers hid inside it.

Other soldiers wheeled it in front of the gates of the city.

The Trojans thought it was a gift and wheeled the large horse inside their

city.

At nightfall, the Greek soldiers came out and defeated the Trojans.

 

How is a Trojan Horse just like your local blood bank?

 

Blood banks have a tremendous challenge in making sure that you get blood

that is free from harmful germs

Blood banks test every unit for hepatitis, HIV, and syphilis. Not only is

the actual blood tested, each donor receives a health history interview to

determine if there are any hidden diseases. Unfortunately, donated blood

that contains Lyme disease may be allowed into a blood bank despite these

screening measures.

 

According to the Red Cross website, donated blood is not tested for Lyme

disease

Nor do they test for other tick borne co-infections like Babesia,

Bartonella, Ehrlichia, or microplasms. The tests for Lyme disease and

co-infections

may not be used because they are not totally accurate, time consuming, and

expensive. One of the more popular tests for these infections is called

the Western Blot test. It is only 50% - 66% accurate according to most

experts.

 

Even if blood were screened with the Western Blot, a third to a half of

infected donations would be incorrectly labeled as safe. A time consuming

process, this test can require four or more hours for a single screening.

Given that over 12 million units of blood are donated each year, this would

introduce significant delays in the screening time for each unit of blood.

 

A faster option is real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) testing. This

test can be completed in approximately an hour for each unit of blood.

This test costs approximately $15 - $25 per unit. Multiply that times 12

million units per year and the cost of screening jumps up approximately $180M -

$300M per year. Live culture tests and microscopic examination take too

long and are not reliable enough. Even donor interviews may not prevent blood

infected with Lyme disease or co-infections from passing into the blood

bank.

 

Donors with Lyme may not have symptoms or recall being bitten by a tick in

their health history interview

Approximately 50% - 80% of people bitten by an infected tick do not get a

bulls eye rash. Many people who contract Lyme disease do not recall ever

seeing or feeling a tick bite. The blood screening health history interview

would not identify infected people that do not have symptoms. Given that the

Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that there are approximately

400,000 new cases every year, there are probably a significant number of

infected units of blood that enter into blood banks.

 

What can you do to help protect yourself from infected blood?

 

You can donate and try to get blood banks to store your own blood

Contact your local hospital or blood bank to see what their procedures are

for storing and using your blood. There are many rules, paperwork, and

additional costs with donating and storing your own blood. Refrigerated blood

is normally stored for thirty five days. Frozen blood is stored up to ten

years. You are eligible to donate every 56 days. Depending upon how much

blood you have accumulated, you may encounter a situation where you need to

draw from other donors blood. You can bring awareness to this problem by

asking about screening procedures for tick borne illnesses to protect yourself

and others.

 

Contact your local Red Cross to ask them about their plans for screening

for tick borne diseases like Lyme

Ever since 1989, The American Red Cross Blood Services has acknowledged

the possibility of Lyme disease transmission through blood products. They did

a study titled, " Survival of Borrelia Burgdorferi in Blood Products " which

demonstrated that Lyme can live in blood that is stored in blood bank

conditions for as long as 45 days in frozen (-18 degrees Celsius) or

refrigerated (4 degrees Celsius). Refer to this study and ask what has been

implemented in the twenty years since this study. You can also encourage more

research into finding better screening methods through financial donations.

 

Make a financial donation with the intention of supporting the screening

for tick borne diseases

The Red Cross will take notice if they start receiving financial donations

for researching screening methods for tick borne diseases. This will

hopefully motivate them to find more accurate, faster, and less costly Lyme

disease screening procedures. Since they are a non-profit they have to use

donated funds according to their stated intention. (I have no affiliations with

the Red Cross or Lyme testing manufacturers). If blood can carry the

bacteria, so can meat also.

 

Not only blood can carry these infections, so can the animal meats that

you eat

Given that the Red Cross study demonstrates that the Lyme can live in

frozen or refrigerated blood for 45 days, this implies that infected animal

meat that is raw or undercooked may contain live bacteria. Your digestive

acids may not be enough to kill these germs because the stomach is a place

where Lyme is often found in the body.

 

Plus, not only deer meat may be infected, but also beef. The USDA

acknowledges on their website that cows can carry Lyme. In Connecticut,

suspected

cases of Lyme disease have been reported in goats and sheep. So make sure

that any of these meats that you eat is thoroughly cooked. Avoid eating rare

or undercooked meats from these animals. Fortunately, chickens that are

over 4 weeks old appear to be safe according to one study referenced on the CDC

website.

 

Taking the right precautions can help to protect you against an unexpected

tick borne illness

You can take steps to prevent an unexpected infection from blood or meat

products. You can donate and store your own blood. You can encourage the Red

Cross to research better screening methods for these diseases through your

inquiries or financial contributions. And you can make sure any animal

meats that are known to carry Lyme are cooked thoroughly. These steps can help

to reduce your chances of getting an unwanted " Trojan Horse " Lyme

infection from your blood bank or from undercooked meat products.