Naila Raza.
Revisiting Reactive Blood Donor Demographics - a Single Center Experience.
J Liaquat Uni Med Health Sci Jan ;15(4):208-12.

OBJECTIVES: Evaluation of reactive donor demographics is helpful in assessing the risk of transfusion transmittable diseases (TTDs) which assists in formation of long term strategies to improve public health, assessing quality and effectiveness of donor screening, and prevent disease spread. This study was conducted to assess the impact of education and age on sero-reactive first time and repeat blood donors in order to identify gaps between knowledge and awareness in urban replacement blood donors of a developing country. METHODS: A cross sectional observational study was conducted at the blood bank of Liaquat National Hospital & Medical College, Karachi from July 2014 to June 2016. This study reviewed the demographic features of reactive blood donors during two year period. Comparative analysis of transfusion transmittable disease pattern with last 10 year data was performed. Reactive donors during the study period were grouped into first time and repeat donors and their association with different age groups, level of education and type of disease was sought using chi square test. RESULTS: We found a sero-prevalence for HBsAg as 1.64%, HCV 2.13%, HIV1 & 2 0.10%, Syphilis 1.73%, and for Malaria as 0.005%. Trend analysis showed mild reduction in HCV reactivity for the study period. 67.3% (n=382) of first time donors and 45.8% (n=585) repeat donors belonged to the youngest age bracket of 15-29 years. Donation status was found to have significant association with age group (p≤0.05), level of education (p≤0.05) Hepatitis B reactivity (p≤0.05) and VDRL sero-positivity (p≤0.05). CONCLUSION: Our study showed that education, age, HBsAg and VDRL infectivity affects both groups of reactive donors. Continuous monitoring of donor demographics can help in assessing and revising policies for donor awareness and transfusion transmittable disease control and prevention.

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