Donor Eligibility After Herpes Meningitis

Is it acceptable to collect a blood donation (whole blood, platelets or plasma) from an individual who reports a history of herpes meningitis?

IF NO, why not.

IF YES, should there be a deferral between the acute infection and the blood donation, and for how long should the deferral be?

The following comments were received. The consensus opinion seems to be that the donor could become eligible to give blood, but only after a sufficient (but undefined) period of time had passed during which the donor was in good health with no residual signs of the herpes infection:

Comment #1: I think that this is an acceptable donor. I am not aware of any standard that would disqualify such a donation. The question related to deferral period after the acute infection is a more difficult one. Since there are no specific guidelines that speak to this issue, any deferral will be arbitrarily defined. At our institution, all temporary deferrals are for a period of 12 months. Though it may not make as much scientific sense, the consistency of the temporary deferral period is useful for operational reasons. Thus, we would temporarily defer an individual with herpes meningitis for a period of 12 months from the time of infection.

Comment #2: We would take such a donor, usually after the person had recovered, e.g., at least a few days after subsidence of all symptoms.

Comment #3: I think the donor should be acceptable if fully recovered from the infection and has no health problems related to the previous infection. As far as a deferral period, it is difficult to state an absolute time frame since it depends on the clinical course of infection and sequelae.

Comment #4: My thoughts would be to accept a donor with a history of herpes meningitis once the patient has been disease free for at least six months. Related diseases, Herpes 2 and zoster, are not permanent deferrals. I believe they can donate if there are no active lesions. As meningeal lesions may be more difficult to assess, I think 6 months after the last symptom is reasonable.

Comment #5 (the dissenting vote): NO, this donor should not be able to donate because herpesviruses are known to be sequestered within leukocytes even after the patient becomes seronegative, such as has been seen for CMV.

Editor's NOTE: If the recommendation given in comment #5 were followed, would we then discontinue taking donations from any individual known to be CMV seropositive or who has a history of CMV disease?

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Ira A. Shulman, MD
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