Curious about the donor's "pretesting" questions

[Annig83]

As some of you know my neighbor has volunteered himself for testing to see if he is a match for me, and finally got a hold of my case worker.  When he went through the phone interview she asked a couple of questions I was unsure of why she asked...or that I've never heard of being asked before.

1) Have you been to South America?
2) Were you or your mother born in South America?  (If the first question was a no, then I would assume not to ask this... anyways  )
3) Were you in prison for more than 72 hours?  If so, what was your offense in detail?


Just curious if anyone knows the exact reasoning for these specific questions, I mean I assume that they are looking to see if he could have been in contact with certain diseases, but which ones and why only South America?  And why would he have to explain in "detail" his offense if he had one? 

[cariad]

Perhaps there are genetic issues specific to South America that they would not need bother to screen for if there is no South American connection. Asking if they've ever visited must have to do with one or more diseases that may take some time to turn up in lab work, the only ones I can think of are hepatitis and AIDS. Prison would also be a risk in terms of disease exposure, and asking about the offense in detail is probably an attempt to see if IV drug use was a part of the situation.

I would encourage your potential donor to enquire about why he is being asked these questions. I hope this is your ticket to freedom from dialysis. Good luck! 

[okarol]

I have never heard of those questions before!

[Deanne]

I suspect it's because of one of the viruses for questions 1 & 2. I bet there are other viruses like CMV that remain dormant in the body.

On being in prison? Got me unless they're trying to determine if your donor is high-risk because of some of their behaviors, but if that's the case, why ask about 72 hours in prison instead of just asking if they've been involved in specific high-risk activities.