Background: Safe blood donors form the backbone of safe blood transfusion services. Donor eligibility policies are a critical layer of blood safety designed to ensure selection of healthy donors and to protect recipients from any harm.

Aim: Analysis of rates and reasons of blood donor deferral at a tertiary care hospital in north India.

Methodology: The present study is a retrospective study done in a tertiary care centre in Jammu region. The data was collected over a period of 2 years from January 2018 to December 2019.The various causes for deferral of the donor from donation were collected from donor deferral register which was recorded using regular questionnaire- based interview in the registration card followed by thorough medical history elicitation and minimal physical examination.

Result: The total number of potential donors screened during the study period were 4728, out of which 532 were deferred because of various reasons. The deferral rate was calculated to be 11.25%.The mean age of deferred donors was 31.2±8.4 years. Most common cause for deferral both among males and females was low Haemoglobin level (less than 12.5gm %) i.e., 28.58%, followed by alcohol intake in last 24 hrs i.e., 11.09%, history of medication (6.2%); medical causes (5.83%); and Jaundice 5.26%. Deferral rate was found to be more among replacement donors (18.98%) than voluntary donors (6.62%). The permanent deferral was 16.65%.

Conclusion: The deferral rate in this study is comparable to the deferral rates in other centres. The data will be very essential and helpful in testing the applicability of donor selection criteria. By identification of the causes for temporary deferrals, appropriate measures can be put in place to motivate and inform these potential donors to return for blood donation at a later date after the underlying cause has been rectified.

Keywords: Blood donor deferral, permanent deferral, temporary deferral.

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Dr Salve Sharma

Senior resident, Department of Transfusion Medicine, GMC Jammu, India