FAQs

Unfortunately, we cannot give you a definite answer. Your immunology team will help ensure long-term patients are kept for as long as possible on a particular product. However, there are factors beyond their control that might come into play. These include problems of supply of your particular product e.g. any unforeseen batch contamination issues or

Your immunology team will give you contact details which you can use if a problem arises at home; for example, if you think you have an infection and you want advice about delaying immunoglobulin treatment. Some immunology centres offer this service during office hours only. This means you might want to plan your infusions for

Your immunology team will be accredited as a home therapy training centre and will not allow you to go onto home therapy until you are safe. You might have to do a short exam! Once you are on immunoglobulin at home, your team will want to do an assessment every so often. Your assessment will

Being on immunoglobulin should not affect your holidays. If you are on IVIG, a holiday of up to three weeks could be fitted into your infusion schedule. If you are on weekly SCIG, you will either need to take an infusion with you or have a bigger dose in the weeks before and after your

In the past, supplies of immunoglobulin from different manufacturers have been withdrawn from time to time. This has happened because, for example, a batch of immunoglobulin has caused a reaction, such as an itchy rash. Another problem is that immunoglobulin is being used to treat many more different diseases, not just immune deficiency. Immunoglobulin costs

There are about half a dozen immunoglobulin manufacturers and the different IVIG and SCIG products available vary slightly. However, each manufacturer must follow international standards on product safety. The blood donor centres and manufacturing plants of all the different companies are inspected from time to time.

The tests you had before starting immunoglobulin were designed to check whether you would need immunoglobulin for life. However, sometimes immunoglobulin is recommended for people whose immune deficiency may only be temporary. This can happen in small babies or when the immune system had been damaged by medications, for example. It’s also possible you were

Immunoglobulin is manufactured in batches. Several thousand donations of plasma are pooled in each batch. Very occasionally there are problems with some batches. For example, recently one batch of immunoglobulin caused some people to get an itchy rash. Because it was possible to see which batch was causing the rash, replacement immunoglobulin could be sent

The exact protocol for follow-up varies between centres and will also vary depending on your particular situation. You could expect to be seen at least two or three times a year. Sometimes follow-up will be done by a specialist trainee doctor or a specially trained nurse if it is a recognised teaching centre. You might

The first step the manufacturers take is to get to know the blood donors really well. Manufacturers insist that their donors donate regularly. Each time a donor attends the blood centre they are asked a lot of questions, ranging from their sex lives to any recent travel. They then donate the blood as well as