Blood Donor Deferral: Do We Need To Revise Our Strategy?

Dr Rajeev Singh Mallhi; Dr Neerja Kushwaha; Dr Amit Pawar

Volume : VI, Issue : II, February - 2016

Blood Donor Deferral: Do We Need To Revise Our Strategy?

Dr Rajeev Singh Mallhi, Dr Neerja Kushwaha, Dr Amit Pawar

Abstract :

Blood donor deferral imposes a perpetual challenge to the transfusion services. Donor deferral issue is addressed by blood banks as per the National guidelines. We undertook this study with the aim of analyzing the donor deferral pattern over a period of nine years at our blood bank to initiate steps to attend to shortcomings if any. Records of all the donor deferrals from 2006 to 2014 were traced and comprehensive retrospective analysis of blood donors deferred in the study period was done. 13.07% potential donors were deferred. 96.50% donors were deferred for temporary reasons while 3.50% were deferred permanently. Low hemoglobin accounted for highest number of deferrals. Diabetes mellitus accounted for maximum permanent deferrals. Donor deferral policy in our country needs to be reviewed so as to strike a fine balance between the demand and supply of blood. Also, consolidating the donor reserve would ensure retention of temporarily deferred donors.