When are you suitable as a donor?

Preliminary information: The Paul-Ehrlich-Institute is currently working on the conditions for the Covid-19immunity donation. Check back regularly for updates!


Positive for Sars-CoV-2

Affirmed Covid-19: At least one of your virus- or antibody-tests should be positive


Medication

Certain medications exclude you from donating. Other medication can be taken without any problem.


Recovered from Covid-19, otherwise healthy

Some diseases exclude you from donating. Read on for more details.

Need a antibody test? mehr erfahren

This is required for your immunity donation:

  • You feel fit and have no acute illnesses
  • Your age is between 18 and 68 years
  • You weigh minimum 50 kg
  • Please bring your valid identity card or passport with proof of registration
  • Your last immunity donation or plasma donation was at least a week ago
  • Optional: blood donation pass, vaccination card, doctor's letter, reading glasses

 


If you want to know more:

How can I prepare for my immunity donation?

  • Please make sure that you do not eat anything particularly high in fat neither the day before the donation nor on the day of the donation itself. Too much fat can make your donation unusuable.  
  • Not later than four hours before the donation you should eat some balanced food in order to stablize your circulation.
  • Drinking at least 2 liters the day before the donation and making sure to drink enough the day of the donation itself makes the blood collection a lot easier.

Plasma donation: Which medication is allowed?

Many medications you usually take do not become a problem for a plasma donation:

  • Blood pressure medication
  • Vitamin- and mineral compounds
  • Menopause hormones
  • Birth control pill (at least 3 hours should pass between ingestion of the pill and the plasma donation. Otherwise the effect of the pill might be impaired)
  • If you are receiving psychiatric medication please bring a doctor's certificate

 

If you are using other medications, please discuss all details with the donation center. This also includes special forms of intake such as sprays or ointments. Please inform our team about all medications with dosage and frequencey of use during our check-up call. It may be helpful to have the medicine packaging at hand.

You should not have received any antibiotics, virustatics, antifungals (anti-fungal medications) within the past four weeks.

 

 

Retraction: What leads to temporary disabilty to donate?

Plasma donation: a cold, fever, diarrhea

  • After a simple infection, such as a cold, you are not allowed to donate plasma for a week
  • You must suspend your donation for at least four weeks after having overcome all symptoms of an infection such as e.g. fever or diarrhea of unknown cause

Dental treatment and plasma donation

  • After a dental treatment or after a professional tooth cleaning you are not allowed to donate for one day
  • After a tooth has been extracted or after any other extensive treatment you are not allowed to donate for at least one week

Plasma donation after vaccintation

  • No delay is required after having received inactivated vaccines, toxoid or genetically engineered vaccines, as long as you feel well. This includes e.g. diphteria, flu (influenza), hepatitis A, tetanus or  TBE/FSME
  • If you  have received a live vaccine e.g. yellow fever, rubella, measles, mumps, varicella, typhoid, cholera or hepatitis B you are not allowed to donate for 4 weeks
  • If you suspect you have contracted the rabies virus, you have to wait a whole 12 months after having received the rabies vaccination

Piercing, tatoos or acupuncture

  • After acupuncture under sterile conditions with disposable needles you may donate without any restrictions
  • You will have to delay donation for four months after acupuncture if you are not entirely certain of the sterile conditions
  • A four months delay is also necessary after tatoos or other cosmetic treatments: piercings, ear holes, under skin implants, permanent make-up, cutting or branding

What you have to consider after travels abroad

  • After a longer stay in an area where certain infectious diseases occur, such as zika or west-nile-virus, you must suspend donation for at least four months
  • After having returned from a malaria risk areas you must not donate for six months, regardless of whether you took phrophylactic medication or not

Please inform our team and the staff in the donation centers about all travels abroad during the last 12 months.

Retraction of blood donations after surgery

  • You are blocked from donation for a few up to several weeks after surgery. For how long exactly depends on the kind of surgery and whether there were any complications. Even a permanent exclusion from the donation is possible

Retraction during pregnancy and breastfeeding 

  • During pregnancy and up to six months afterwards you must not donate blood or plasma. For your own safety you are deferred from donation during breastfeeding

Retraction for risky sexual behaviour

  • You will be temporarily deferred from the donation if your sexual behavior is associated with a higher risk of transmitting a communicable serious infectious disease. This includes infections such as HIV, syphilis or hepatitis

Retraction for 12 months:

  • As a heterosexual person with sexual risk behavior such as sex with frequently changing partners
  • As person who offers prostitution (sex worker)
  • As sexually active man that has sex with men (MSM)
  • as transsexual person with sexual risk behaviour

You will be deferred for four months after having had sex with one of the above persons.

You can donate again 4 to 12 months after the last sexual contact with any of the above persons.

What are the reasons for a total exclusion from plasma donation?

Some people have to be permanently excluded from donating. If one of the exclusion criteria applies to you, you can unfortunately not make a donation. But you can support us! Join our team and help us coordinate the immunity donations against corona and help as many people as possible!

Severe chronic and acute illnesses

For your own protection, you are excluded from the donation in the case of acute or chronic illnesses. If you suffer from a disease not listed here, please speak to our team and the staff at the donation center.

The diseases listed here are typical examples:

  • Heart and vascular diseases
  • Brain and spinal mallow diseases (CNS)
  • Blood coagulation disorder
  • Chronic diseases of kidneys, lungs or digestion organs
  • Immune system or metabolic system diseases
  • Malignant tumor diseases (cancer)
  • Diabetes mellitus (insulin dependent)

Certain infectious diseases or higher infection risk

Many infections exclude you from donating blood and plasma. These infections include e.g. HIV or syphilis. The same goes for a malaria infection, even if you don't have any symptoms and the disease is considered cured.

Of course, every blood or plasma donation is examined. Since there is a small residual risk despite all care, people with an increased risk of infection are therefore fundamentally excluded.

Spongiform enzephalopathies (TSE)

Spongiform encephalophathies are rare diseases that can affect the brain and nervous system of humans and animals. The most well-known disease in this group is Creutzfeld-Jakob disease. If there is a risk of transmission, you must not donate.

If you consume drugs

If you consume drugs or abuse medication you must not donate blood. The same applies if there is reasonable suspicion.