wait list/quarantine?

sine4me

Morning,

I'm new to this whole process so I'm looking to see if anyone has a better explanation. I asked Fairfax about a couple of the donor's that are currently on the wait list. Their response has me a bit confused and concerned. They said that "The samples must go into quarantine for a six month period, and after six months, we draw the donor's blood to retest the donor for infectious diseases and at that point, we release any specimens left at our facility six months prior to the blood draw."

I guess my question and concern is, why were these donors available before? Wouldn't the put them in quarantine first and once confirmed safe, then post them as available? Or does it mean that someone reported something "off" and they took them off availability and running them through testing again?

Any information anyone can provide would be appreciated.

Thanks!

jl2011

Hi sine4me,

If you do some research online you will find that fairfax is one of the best cryobanks. You can also check your donor's medical history and his family's medical history as well. They do testing. But, they take it one step further and don't make it available immediately for us to purchase so in 6 months they can retest the donor just to make sure before they make the vials available for use. All of this is done for a new donor.
Now, if a birth defect or something like that is reported for a donor they also quarantine him I believe for further testing. And if someone still wants to use the same donor they have to acknowledge that they were informed of the prior problem.

Hope that helps you out! Good luck in your journey!

Fairfax Cryobank

I asked Fairfax about a couple of the donor's that are currently on the wait list. Their response has me a bit confused and concerned. They said that "The samples must go into quarantine for a six month period, and after six months, we draw the donor's blood to retest the donor for infectious diseases and at that point, we release any specimens left at our facility six months prior to the blood draw.

I guess my question and concern is, why were these donors available before? Wouldn't the put them in quarantine first and once confirmed safe, then post them as available? Or does it mean that someone reported something "off" and they took them off availability and running them through testing again?

Maybe this will help. Vials must be in quarantine for six months, then the donor is tested for infectious diseases before those vials are released for sale. Many times the vials that are cleared from quarantine are purchased and the donor then no longer has vials available for sale. However, the donor may still have vials in quarantine from 1-5 months ago that have not passed the 6 month quarantine process. In that case, the donor may have a wait list for people wanting to purchase vials once they are cleared for sale.

So when a donor is on a wait list, it does not mean there is anything wrong with the donor. It just means he does not have any vials available for purchase until he has another blood test screening done. If the donor testing comes back clear, then vials from 6 months prior can be released from quarantine.

It is a very complicated process so if you have any additional questions, please feel free to ask or call Fairfax Cryobank at 800-338-8407.

sine4me

That does help, thank you very much. My confusion was why would vials be released and THEN go into quarantine, seemed backwards. But you're explanation of earlier vials being released and newer vials not being ready and still in quarantine makes perfect sense.

Thanks so much for the clarification!

Amirasmommy

They do this because many STD like AIDS can have a 6 month incubation period meaning that it could take unto 6 months for it to show on a test. Also, these diseases could be picked up at any time from a sexual encounter. So for example, if someone donates once a month for 3 months staring in January, they would need to be retested in july, august, and September upon each new 6 month release from quarantine to ensure that the donor didn't say contract HIV in March before he donated that month. If you only rest in July for the January vials then automatically release the February and march vials without subsequent retests then you could miss the HIV and pass this disease on. I for one am VERY greatful that Fairfax follows this procedure and it is one of the reasons I have chosen them over other banks. Plus, I think this may be an FDA requirement. HTH!

ladymacb29

They could have had previous donations that were cleared and have donations that aren't yet 6 months old. That's how they could have been available in the past but aren't currently.