Impact of blood donor deferrals on blood availability in a tertiary care centre of Dakshina Kannada

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Original Article

Author Details : M.H. Shariff, Sadiqunissa, Qudusia Sultana

Volume : 3, Issue : 3, Year : 2016

Article Page : 376-378

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Abstract

 Background: The need for the blood is much higher than its supply. A large number of voluntary blood donors are deferred due to various causes, identified through sensitive laboratory screening for the guaranteed safety of the recipients which lead to loss of precious blood required to save life. Even though blood supply is inadequate, donor selection remains an important task.
Objective: This study was been undertaken to evaluate the causes of deferrals among voluntary blood donors and to find a strategy for management of the same.
Materials and Methods: A preliminary single center-based study assessing the causes for donor deferral was conducted during the study period of January 2013 to December 2014. The deferral reasons were then classified into temporary and permanent causes and the details were enlisted.
Observations and Results: Of the 5321 donors, 4424 were voluntary donors and 897 were replacement donors. From this a total of 406(7.63%) donors were deferred: 293(72.1%) belonged to temporary and 113(27.8%) belonged to permanent category. 3 most common causes observed in our study for temporary deferrals were history of antibiotics intake, anemia and alcohol consumption and for permanent deferrals were hypertension, hepatitis C and hepatitis B.
Conclusion: In order to decrease the deferrals and increase the blood donors the blood transfusion centres should take a further step to notify and educate the donors who are temporarily deferred about the reason for doing so and positively encourage and council them to come back again after certain time to donate blood and become regular permanent donors.

Keywords: Voluntary blood donors, deferrals, screening, temporary, permanent

How to cite : Shariff M, Sadiqunissa, Sultana Q, Impact of blood donor deferrals on blood availability in a tertiary care centre of Dakshina Kannada. Indian J Pathol Oncol 2016;3(3):376-378

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