You absolutely, positively cannot get AIDS or any other disease from giving blood. A sterile needle is used only once and then discarded. The average adult body contains about 10 to 12 pints of blood. Your body quickly replaces the fluid from the blood you give. Getting a good night's sleep, having a good breakfast or lunch and drinking plenty of fluids helps prepare a donor for giving blood.
Blood donors can give blood every eight weeks, or six times a year.
The Red Cross only collects blood from voluntary donors. Every unit of blood donated is carefully screened in the laboratory to detect the presence of disease and to determine blood type. Blood types are inherited. Type O negative is called the Universal Donor because, in an emergency, it can be given to people with other blood types. Type O positive is the most common blood type.