Crowe Welcomes New Blood Transfusion Service for  Haemochromatosis Sufferers

Local Tallaght TD, Séan Crowe has welcomed today’s announcement that the Irish Blood Transfusion Service will begin a free phlebotomy or blood transfusion service for people with hereditary haemochromatosis.

Crowe said that thousands of people with the blood condition known as haemochromatosis will be able to donate to the blood supply, under a new programme launched by the Irish Blood Transfusion Service.

Haemochromatosis is a hereditary condition in which excessive amounts of iron are absorbed from the diet and deposited in various organs. It is particularly prevalent in Celtic Countries and the gene that triggers the condition has been called the Celtic curse

The new service is now available in Dublin becoming active in Cork from November of this year on a pilot basis.

 They hope  to be able to extend it to other towns and cities also  in the near future.

Speaking today after the announcement, Deputy Crowe said:

“I very much welcome this long awaited decision by the Irish Blood Transfusion Service. My party have long called for this facility to be put in place to allow blood donations from haemochromatosis patients taken as part of their routine treatment and added to the national blood stock.

“Until now, blood drawn from haemochromatosis patients was discarded due to  IBTS policy.

“The old policy didn’t make much sense, particularly for a service that is regularly critically short of blood at various high demand times during the year.

 This new logical move will now bring Ireland in to line with many other countries that have a high number of haemochromatosis suffers

“It is envisaged by the irish Blood Transfusion Service  that when the pilot programme is in place donations from hemochromatosis patients will make up to 4% of total donations.

“There is a general consensus among  Irish  haemochromatosis sufferers, that this pilot programme will be rolled out on a state-wide basis and at the earliest possible timescale. I and my colleagues in Sinn Fein will continue to lobby for this forward looking development.”