Background

An adequate supply of safe blood is ensured by exercising donor deferral criteria and screening for Transfusion Transmitted Infections (TTI). The aim of this paper is to study the profile of blood donors and reasons for donor deferral in North India.

Method

The study was conducted at a tertiary care hospital in Jodhpur. All those who donated between January 2017 to December 2017 were included in the study. Data was collected from donor deferral records of the blood bank and analysed using MS excel.

Results

Most of the deferred donors were under the age of 25 (50.37%). Donors were predominantly male (78.24%). In terms of occupation, most subjects were students (29.58%) followed by private workers (25.18%). 64.79% of deferred donors were voluntary donors as most of the donors coming for donation to our institute were voluntary. The main reasons for deferral were consumption of medication in the past 72 hours (29.34%), a low haemoglobin level (27.14%), h/o jaundice (6.37%), and due to poor vein (4.40%). Among the TTIs identified, most samples were positive for Hepatitis B surface Antigen – HBsAg (0.87%), tested positive for Anti–Hepatitis C (HCV antibodies (0.14%) and for Anti–HIV (0.07%).

Conclusion

It was accomplished from this study that the majority of the donor population was young and educated, still there is need to educate the donor selection criteria to the society by the medical professionals. Knowledge and self–motivation of the donors are the key factors behind achieving cent percent reception of blood donors.