Blood Donors

To describe the various adverse donor reactions and determine the frequency of their occurrence in whole blood donors.  A retrospective review of all the no of donor Reactions reports of 19 blood banks of Kerala from 01/01/2014 to 31/12/2015 was done. The total number of donations were 246092(94.34%) and the Donors rejected were 14752(5.66%) 1174(0.48%) had an adverse reaction of which 999(0.41%) were vasovagal related and 175(0.07%) were needle injuries. Donor safety is an essential prerequisite to increase voluntary blood donation. AE analysis helps in identifying the blood donors at risk of AE, applying appropriate motivational strategies, pre-donation counseling, care during and after donation, developing guidelines and hemovigilance programme in countries with limited resources. Strict adherence to the rules is essential to ensure donor safety.  Also  it would have detrimental effects on return of donors for subsequent donations and rate of complications resulting in long-term morbidity and disablement is not negligible.

The aim of this study was to determine the ABO and Rhesus D Blood group and CMV Status of blood donors in Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto. Two hundred and ninety (290) consecutively –recruited blood donors, consisting of 287 males and 3 females aged 19 – 55 years with mean age 39 ± 21 years were screened for their ABO and Rh D blood group and CMV antibodies status using the Lorne Laboratories (UK) antisera and CTK Biotech (U.S.A.) Onsite CMV IgG/IgM Duo rapid test for CMV-IgG and IgM detection. The result shows that 57.9% of the donors were CMV positive for IgM only, 3.1% were positive for both IgM and IgG and 4.82% were positive for IgG only while the remaining 34.18% were negative. The prevalence of CMV positivity was higher among blood group O donors (30.7%) compared to blood group A (16.2%), B (15.5%) and AB (0.34%). CMV positivity was higher among blood donors  in the 25-29 years age group (16.6%) compared to those in the 19-24 years (16.2%), 30-35 years (12.1%), 36-40 years (10.3%), 41-45 years (8.7%), 46- 50 years (1.40%) and 51-55 years age group (0.70%). This present study indicates mild endemicity of CMV infection among blood donors in Sokoto, Nigeria. There is need to routinely screen blood donors for CMV particularly for donor units intended for use in neonates, pregnant women, AIDS patients, immunosuppressed and transplant patients. The use of leucocyte- rich whole blood transfusion should be discouraged in Nigeria. Effort should be made to implement universal leucodepletion of donated units. There is also the need to educate clinical staff to ensure that CMV negative units are requested for patients in whom CMV negative units are indicated.