Should people with Long Covid be donating blood?
Leading Long Covid and ME researchers and patient-advocates who spoke with The Sick Times largely agreed that blood donation could worsen a patient’s symptoms. However, they also cited concerns about a growing body of research that shows a variety of potential issues in the blood of people with Long Covid which could make their blood unsafe for recipients. “Based on the levels of inflammatory markers and microclots we have seen in blood samples from both Long Covid and ME/CFS, I do not think the blood is safe to be used for transfusion,” said Resia Pretorius, a leading Long Covid researcher and distinguished professor from the physiological sciences department at Stellenbosch University in South Africa.
(tags: me-cfs long-covid covid-19 blood-transfusion medicine)