Blood...

I haven't found an answer for couple of questions related to blood donation till now.

• Why the prescribed frequency of blood donation per individual in US is more than those in India? Like in US, a person can donate blood every 56 days (8 weeks) while in India a person can donate only after 90 days (or say 13 weeks).
• Also, a person in India can donate blood just by proving that he is healthy and doesn't have any disease. But that in US, when we keep answering those 50 interview questions before giving blood, we'll end up knowing that we can't donate blood if we haven't stayed in US for one complete year. They have placed countries like India as malaria prone and hence, if I have been in India within last 1 year then I'll become ineligible for donating blood in US. I had always felt very much discouraged because of this restriction. With all those medical advances and that too in US, why can't they just test the blood to get confidence of using the blood?

When I walked into a blood bank recently in India for blood donation my enthusiasm was turned down because it seems they had surplus of blood in all groups including mine. Though I felt a bit dejected, I guess anyone will be equally happy too when you come to know of the greater public knowledge about blood donation and their increased voluntary participations...