Safe blood begins with safe donors

To identify the safest group of blood donors demographically with regard to risk of transmission of diseases in order to develop effective recruitment and retention strategies. Design: Demographic data and the results of screening for HIV, HBV l3 HCV in three different groups of blood donors have been analysed to identify the safest group of blood donors. All donors were subjected to medical interview and examination to exclude any donor who responded in the affirmative for any recognized risk factors or was considered unfit to donate blood as per national standards and guidelines. Additional data regarding educational and socio-economic status was also obtained and analysed. Subjects: Initially 703 donors registered to donate blood. None responded in the affirmative for any of the risk factors. 65 [9.25%] were deferred for different reasons and 638 donors were bled from the following three groups: 1] Healthy college going first time volunteers, 2] Healthy factory workers also first time volunteers and 3] Healthy voluntary non-remunerated donors [VNRD] who had donated at least twice in the calendar year at a hospital based blood bank. Setting: Blood from groups 1 and 2 were collected on mobile bleeding sessions, while data for group 3 was obtained from two busy teaching hospital blood banks. Testing for HIV, HBV, and HCV were carried out by rapid serological screening methods. All initially reactive donors were confirmed on EIA at the laboratories of the Institute of Haematology and Blood Transfusion Service, Punjab. All false positive, initially reactive, donors were excluded from the study. Main Outcome Measures: Identification of safest blood donor group. We found that generally younger people in our society posed a lesser risk to transmission of diseases as blood donors. The frequency of HCV positivity is alarmingly high amongst the poor in our society. Even amongst repeat donors the incidence of infectious disease markers are considerable. If appropriately motivated, women are equally poised to donate blood altruistically. Conclusions: There is a need to target younger people in recruitment and retention programmes for blood donations. Incentives like free hepatitis B vaccination should be given to preserve the existing repeat donor pool. Donor deferral registers need to be created and placed for easy reference at all blood banks. Due to the high risk of HCV transmission through blood obtained from the less fortunate class in our society, large scale HCV screening of the general population should be started and epidemiological studies undertaken to identify causes of such high frequency in order to curtail impending catastrophe

audit of blood ordering pactices in Hospital Queen Elizabeth, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

To audit the blood ordering practices in an attempt to alleviate shortage of blood, improve percentage utilization and cross match transfusion ratio. Design: The blood bank reviewed all requests for blood to ensure: a] adherence to hospital guidelines for transfusion, b] adherence to type and screen or group, screen and hold [TS/GSH] ordering schedule for defined elective surgeries and c] automatic cancellation of orders if not utilized within 24 hours. Setting: The blood bank and clinical departments of Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. Subjects: During the span of four months in 1996, 9581 orders for request of blood and blood products were subjected to audit. No distinction was made between different products and each unit request was counted as one. Main outcome measures: Availability of blood, percentage utilization and cross match transfusion ratio. The number of requests decreased by 38.5%; compliance by the blood bank increased by 12.7%, while percentage utilization by end users improved by 24.0%. The cross match/transfusion ratio [CT ratio] came down to 2.0:1. Conclusions: Without prejudice to the need for increased collection of blood, we would like to suggest that systems used in this study are helpful tools in busy blood banks for overcoming relative shortage, attaining better utilization and CT ratio