Analysis of Donor Deferral in 101 Voluntary Blood Donation (VBD) Camps by Tertiary Care Hospital of North-Western India

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Safe Blood banking in INDIA is upcoming modern medicine. Stringent pre-screening of the blood donors is essential to ensure quality of donors and to avoid risk of transfusion transmitted diseases to the recipient .Donor deferral is bad experience for both the blood donor as well as the blood bank and leaves them with negative feelings for blood donation process. These donors are less likely to return for blood donation in future [1][2] . Thus, every blood centre has to balance between acceptable quality and desired quantity. The criteria for prospective blood donor selection and deferral in India are provided by the Drugs and Cosmetic Act 1940 [3] . It is very essential to study and analyze the reasons for such deferral among prospective donors in order to categorize them into temporary and permanent deferrals and to find the causes in particular region. Few studies done in India in the past have provided different common reasons for deferral of whole blood donors, highlighting differing demographic profile in different parts of the country. [4,5,6,7] The objective of this study is to assess the current rate and reasons for donor deferral in north western India so that temporarily deferred donors with corrective reasons can be identified, properly informed and guided to improve their quality and thus later on donate blood. So the study was done in 101 Voluntary Blood Donation (VBD) camps over a period of 5 months at blood bank, SMS Hospital, Department of Immunohaematology and Blood Transfusion SMS HOSPITAL, JAIPUR.