Not sure why, but during my stay in the US in 2008 I never donated blood, something I use to do on a regular basis in my home country. Not that I didn’t try to figure where, when and how last year in the US, but I guess one year is not enough to relocate overseas such little precious details too. Well, the other theory is: I didn’t try hard enough.
But now I’m back and I recently went to donate blood. As you might know, the blood undergoes a number of tests. I never knew exactly how many and which, so this time I asked for information. I’ll list here the tests, as a a reminder for myself and for interested readers. I’d like to point out, tests on donated blood are likely to differ between countries.
- DNA test for the following virues: AIDS, Hepatitis C and Hepatitis B
- Traces of the Treponema pallidum bacterium, of which its pallidum subspecies causes Syphilis
- Check for the Transaminase enzyme level, an indicator for liver disease