Knowledge about HIV-AIDS among first-time and regular voluntary non-remunerated blood donors.

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is one of the serious public health problems in India. AIDS education has been considered as one of the main intervention for control. Sexual route is the major route of transmission of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV); however, approximately 2.5% is transmitted through blood and blood products. The present study was carried out to know the level of awareness about HIV infection and blood donation among first time (190) and repeat (310) voluntary donors of all age groups. One pre-structured questionnaire was circulated among altruistic blood donors. About 96.6% donors want to become repeat donors. Majority of the donors had good knowledge about routes of HIV transmission. According to 97.4% donors, it is transmitted by sexual route, according to 87.4% of donors by sharing needle, according to 85% of donors by blood transfusion and 82.4% of donors believe through vertical transmission. However, 32.4% of the donors, still believe that HIV infection could be transmitted through blood donation. Intense motivational program among donors is needed to remove this myth. Regular donors were convinced the importance of regular and repeat blood donation. They came forward to donate blood for the cause of humanity (80.6%) and the sense of pride (27.79%). First time donors were less motivated by the cause of humanity (56.21%) and volunteered because of peer pressure (26.03%) and motivated by relative or friend. Donors were very alert about precaution to be taken for protecting themselves from danger of HIV infection and priority wise use of safe sexual practice (90%), disposable needles (61.43%) and receive tested blood (45.71%) whenever required. When in need of blood for relatives the donors will give priority to the quality (64.65%) and properly tested blood from voluntary blood donors (86.7%).

Estimation of supernatant hemoglobin in red cell units with and without temperature interruptions.

Red cell units issued to patient and returned back unused, are visually inspected for hemolysis before releasing them for reissue. A study was conducted to find out effect of temperature interruptions in the red cell units, during transport. The aims were to find out hemolysis in units with temperature interruptions and its relationship to the duration and also to compare actual hemolysis with visible hemolysis, if any. Thirty samples with different duration of temperature interruptions were evaluated for actual hemolysis. Fifteen samples of similar shelf-age but without temperature interruptions were included in the study as controls. Low hemoglobin photometer was used to measure supernatant hemoglobin. Despite temperature interruptions, almost all red cell units had acceptable level of hemolysis and this was similar to the red cell units without temperature interruption. The difference between the units with or without temperature interruption was not statistically significant (p > 0.05). Red cell units with smaller duration of temperature interruptions had lesser hemolysis than in those with longer temperature interruptions (p < 0.05). Red cell units younger than 7 days had lesser hemolysis than the units older than 8 days in both categories of units with and without temperature interruptions (p < 0.05). The units without visible hemolysis had lower hemolysis than units with visible hemolysis (p < 0.05). It can be concluded that temperature interruptions have a very minor role in hemolysis, younger units have lesser hemolysis than older units and visual assessment is subjective and tend to overestimate hemolysis.