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# Allergy - Whole blood and components

## Essential information

Includes

  Allergic rhinitis, allergic conjunctivitis, anaphylaxis, hay fever, urticaria.

Obligatory

  Ensure procedures will not expose the donor to something they are allergic to (e.g. constituents of the arm cleaning preparation).

  Must not donate if:

  1. Has severe symptoms due to an allergy or to the medication they are taking.
  2. The donor has taken oral or injected steroids within the last 7 days.
Discretionary
  1. Donors taking medication, other than oral or injected steroids (including antihistamines, eye drops or intranasal steroids, e.g. beclometasone/Beconase®), or with a history of allergy or anaphylaxis (including those who carry adrenaline/epinephrine for self administration, e.g. Anapen® or EpiPen®), provided they are well on the day and will not be exposed to anything they are allergic to, accept.
  2. Nickel allergy, accept.
  3. Donors undergoing desensitisation treatment for hay fever or for allergy to an insect sting, providing they are not experiencing any systemic or local reactions to the treatment, and are well on the day, accept.

## Supporting information

See if relevant
  - Asthma
  - Dermatitis
  - Steroid therapy
Additional information

  Any person who is unwell should not be accepted as a donor. This is to ensure that a serious underlying condition that could be a risk either to the donor or to a potential recipient is not missed. For this reason, a potential donor with anything other than minor symptoms related to an allergy should not be accepted.

  Severe systemic reactions are not seen with nickel 'allergy'.

Reason for change:
  The list of potential allergens has been reworded. A reference to allergic conjunctivitis has been added. Clarification of the acceptance criteria for desensitisation treatment has been added. The link to ‘Coeliac Disease’ has been removed.
Version details:

  WB-DSG Edition 203 Release 61 (22 February 2022)

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