Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Jan;12 Suppl 1(Suppl 1):s51-3.
doi: 10.2450/2012.0100-12.

Response rate of blood donors in the Uttarakhand region of India after notification of reactive test results on their blood samples

Nitin Agarwal  1
Affiliations

Response rate of blood donors in the Uttarakhand region of India after notification of reactive test results on their blood samples

Nitin Agarwal. Blood Transfus. 2014 Jan.

Abstract

Background: An adequate, safe supply of blood and blood components is a crucial part of blood transfusion services. Blood donors with reactive screening test results are informed of their results by letter and telephone call, and are requested to come for counselling either at the blood centre or the integrated counselling and testing centre. Many notified donors either do not respond at all or do not follow up their first visit to the blood bank. This study was undertaken to determine the response of voluntary blood donors after notification of their reactive status by telephone call or letter.

Material and methods: We considered reactive donations during a 2-year period (January 2010 to December 2011). Blood donors with reactive test results were notified and their response rates were evaluated at various levels.

Results: During the study period, 416 donors (0.87%) were found to be reactive for different markers. Of these 416 reactive donors, 249 (59.8%) responded positively to the notification calls and attended counselling. The response rate was highest among donors reactive for hepatitis B virus (HBV) (154/225 i.e. 68.4%). After their first visit, around 6% donors could not be contacted further and were lost to follow up. Fifty donors (22.3%) did not continue their treatment and two (both reported to be HBV reactive) were subsequently found to be negative. Therefore, at 6 months of follow-up, only 182 donors (43.7%) were continuing/had completed their treatment.

Discussion: The response rate of reactive blood donors in developing countries is quite low. These results suggest insufficient health care knowledge and a poor understanding of screening tests.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Response rate of donors notified.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. An Action Plan for Blood Safety. National AIDS Control Organization, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India; 2003. pp. 35–7.
    1. Singh B, Kataria SP, Gupta R. Infectious markers in blood donors of East Delhi: prevalence and trends. Indian J Pathol Microbiol. 2004;47:477–9. - PubMed
    1. Fessehaye N, Naik D, Fessehaye T. Transfusion transmitted infections - A retrospective analysis from the National Blood Transfusion Service in Eritrea. Pan Afr Med J. 2011;9:40. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Nanda A, Tyagi S, Basu S, Marwaha N. Prevalence of transfusion transmitted infections among voluntary and replacement donors. Indian J Hemat Blood Transf. 2001;19:104–5.
    1. Roshan TM, Rosline H, Ahmed SA, et al. Response rate of malaysian blood donors with reactive screening test to transfusion medicine unit calls. Southeast Asian J Trop Med Public Health. 2009;40:1315–21. - PubMed

MeSH terms