Lived experience of infertility among Hong Kong Chinese women.

PURPOSE: This study aims to explore and describe the phenomenon of women with infertility and to enhance understanding on how infertility affects their lives and the specific social consequence they encountered. METHOD: A qualitative phenomenological design was adopted in this study. A total of 13 women who are infertile participated in the study. A snowball sampling method was adopted. Data were analysed through thematic analysis. RESULTS: Four themes emerged in the study, including (i) non-escapable cultural burden in Chinese family; (ii) psychological distress: isolation caused by envy; (iii) disappointment towards reproductive health services; and (iv) self-compassion and religion as coping strategies. CONCLUSIONS: The causes of infertility are highly complex. Apart from medical conditions, many social conditions would also probably trigger the difficulty of conceiving. Health care professional should also focus on the social and psychological aspects of women of infertility.

Hong Kong young people's blood donation behavior.

INTRODUCTION: Similar to other developed countries, only 3% of the total population in Hong Kong donate blood (Hong Kong Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service 2003). More than 20% of annual donations come from youngsters aged 18-25. However, this category of donors has decreased gradually from 24.6% in 2004 to 22.9% in 2008. This study aims to examine the characteristics and intention of young blood donors versus nondonors in Hong Kong; and to explore the factors that may influence Hong Kong young people's donation behavior. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study using questionnaire to solicit information from young people including both blood donors and non-donors. RESULTS: It showed that more non-donors were underweight (26%) than blood donors (16.9%). Blood donors demonstrated to have more knowledge on the usage of donated blood (87.2%). Nearly half of youngster admitted that they made use of donation as a means for blood testing (53.1%) or free physical check-up (47.3%). CONCLUSIONS: Recruitment strategies should focus on the enhancement of health education programs related to blood and blood donation for young people to increase their awareness of blood and alleviate their misconceptions about blood donation.

Practical limitations of convalescent plasma collection: a case scenario in pandemic preparation for influenza A (H1N1) infection.

BACKGROUND: To ensure a good preparedness for pandemic influenza A (H1N1), a study was conducted to investigate clinical effectiveness of hyperimmune intravenous globulin (H-IVIG) prepared from convalescent plasma donated by recovered patients. This article reports on the outcome of the collection phase of the study. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Starting on August 26, 2009, all confirmed patients aged between 18 and 55 years were invited for participation into the study and screen for plasma donation eligibility. Effective September 17, 2009, those who were unwilling to consider screening for plasma were asked to donate whole blood. Plasma collected or separated from whole blood had to demonstrate sufficient neutralization antibodies titers of 40 or more before being channeled for H-IVIG production. RESULTS: By October 31, 2009, a total of 9101 persons were successfully contacted. A total of 1309 screening and 619 whole blood donation appointments were made. In the former 786 (60.0%) attended screening but only 301 could donate plasma by apheresis because of failure to meet blood donation eligibility criteria, failed laboratory tests, insufficient neutralization antibody titers, and inability to make the apheresis appointment. For those who opted for whole blood donation, 379 (61.2%) had attended and donated. A total of 276 L of convalescent plasma with sufficient neutralization antibodies titers was collected for H-IVIG production. DISCUSSION: The study highlighted a number of practical limitations in convalescent plasma collection programs and plasmapheresis is always the preferred mode of collection. It provided valuable learning experience for the blood transfusion service in future planning when large-scale collection is required.