Blood People Requirements Donate Donors Donating Basic Information

To "maintain" (keep up) the quality of the blood in "blood banks" (collections of different types of blood that will be used when needed), organizations that have "blood drives" (efforts to collect a lot of blood) have "strict" (without exceptions) requirements that blood "donors" (people who donate blood) must meet.

The basic requirements are that donors must be healthy, at least 17 years old, and have an "adequate" (sufficient; enough) body weight. But that is just the beginning.

Donors need to "disclose" (share information about) a full list of any medications they are taking, as well as whether they have recently had "immunizations" (injections designed to protect people against disease). They also have to provide basic information about their general health, such as whether they are "ill" (sick) or have medical conditions that are "transmitted" (passed from one person to another) via the blood. In addition, women cannot donate blood if they are pregnant.

Donors also have to respond to a "questionnaire" (a form requesting information) or interview about their "lifestyle" (how one lives and the choices one makes). People who have had a "tattoo" (a permanent ink drawing on one's skin) or a "non-sterile" (not clean) "piercing" (the placement of a hole in one's body, as for earrings) in the past year, people who have had many sexual partners, and people who have taken "non-prescription" (not recommended by a doctor) drugs "intravenously" (via injections) may not donate blood.

There are also some restrictions based on foreign travel. For example, blood banks will not accept blood donations from people who have traveled to a country with malaria (a disease of the blood that causes fevers) in the past 12 months.