Help give blood if you can!

Many of you may already be aware but here's another appeal for blood.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1242603/1/.html

His type is O+ which is rare.

Sadly, I have the same blood type but I'm prevented from giving blood because of the Bloodbank's strict regulations.

For those who have lived in the UK for a cumulative period of 3 months or more from 1980 to 1996 etc:

• Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease [vCJD or Mad Cow disease]

Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) is a rare but fatal human neurodegenerative condition. As with the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, vCJD is classified as a Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE) because of the characteristic spongy degeneration of the brain and its ability to be transmitted.

In contrast to the traditional forms of CJD, vCJD has affected younger patients (average age of 29 years, as opposed to 65 years), and has a relatively longer duration of illness (median of 14 months as opposed to 4.5 months). vCJD is strongly linked to exposure, probably through food, to a TSE of cattle called Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE).

HSA has adopted the policy of excluding donors from the United Kingdom (UK) and most European countries due to the incidence of endogenous human clinical vCJD (“Mad Cow Disease”) infections and outbreaks of vCJD in their cattle industry.

Donors will not be eligible to donate blood if they have:
- Visited or lived in the United Kingdom (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man or the Channel Island) between 1980 and 1996 for a cumulative period of 3 months or longer.
- Visited or lived in France since 1980 for a cumulative period of 5 years or longer.
- Received a transfusion of blood or blood components in France or the United Kingdom (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man or the Channel Island) since 1980.
- Donors who have lived in other European countries (excluding France and UK) for 5 years or more are advised to donate only plasma via apheresis procedure.

These precautionary deferral measures have been adopted by Singapore as well as many other countries such as the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Hong Kong. There is currently no reliable screening test for vCJD in the blood. As vCJD has been reported to be transmitted through blood transfusion in at least 3 cases in the UK, we have decided to adopt these stringent precautions in the interests of blood safety for our patients.

Yes people pls do help Jason, he would require blood as he has to go for more ops to stabilise his condition.

Blood bank is running low on O+ blood.