BLOOD DONORS’ RESPONSE IN MALAYSIA Vol 40 No. 6 November 2009 1315 Correspondence: Dr Suhair Ahmed, Department of Haematology, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 16150, Kubang Kerian, Kelantan, Malaysia. Tel: +609 766 4972; Fax: +609 765 2709 E-mail: suhair@hotmail.com RESPONSE RATE OF MALAYSIAN BLOOD DONORS WITH REACTIVE SCREENING TEST TO TRANSFUSION MEDICINE UNIT CALLS TM Roshan 1 , H Rosline 2 , SA Ahmed 2 , M Rapiaah 2 and MN Khattak 3 1 Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; 2 Department of Haematology, School of Medical Sciences, 3 Unit of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Department of Community Medicine, University Sains Malaysia, Kubang Kerian, Kelantan, Malaysia Abstract. Blood donors with reactive screening test results are requested to come in for counseling by letter and telephone call. It has been noticed many donors responded to neither the letters nor the telephone calls. We evaluated 589 cases with reactive screening test results (208 positive for hepatitis C, 209 for hepatitis B, 85 for VDRL and 87 for HIV). In the hepatitis C positive group 61 donors (29.3%) did not respond and 4.7% missed their follow-up appointment. Similarly low response rates were noted with the HBV (58.9%) and VDRL (67.1%) positive groups. Among HIV positive do- nors 46.0% failed to respond to multiple calls. We conclude that blood donors in Malaysia have a poor response to calls from the blood transfusion unit. A review of the effectiveness of the current deferral system and an increased public knowledge of transmissible infectious diseases may encourage blood donors to have a better response rate. INTRODUCTION Blood donation is a duty of every healthy member of the community and is a life saver. Blood donation saves lives if the blood is safe for the recipient. In developing countries, a major source of HCV, HBV and HIV infection is transfusion of blood and blood products from unscreened or inad- equately screened blood donors. The de- mand for blood components is postulated to increase in the future (Wake and Cutting, 1998). With development in screening the blood the chances of transfusion transmit- ted diseases has decreased considerably. However, tests with greater sensitivity have an increased chance of giving false positive results, leading to unnecessary calls to do- nors to attend the blood bank clinic. Under current practice in Malaysia; po- tential blood donors, after registration and filling out self deferral forms, are sent for counseling and a brief medical checkup. This includes checking the donor’s hemoglobin, blood group and a general physical exami- nation. During counseling, it is made sure the donor has read the information in the self deferral form and signed it. The process of blood donation, post-donation care and the outcomes of donation are explained. The outcome of the process is dependent on the understanding of the donor and his previ- ous experiences. After blood donation is completed, samples are colleted to screen for