Submit Manuscript | http://medcraveonline.com Abbreviations: KAP, knowledge attitude practice; PAC, public awareness campaign; DAC, donor awareness campaign; TTI, transfusion transmitted infection; VNRBD, voluntary non- remunerated blood donor/donation; BDO, blood donor organization Introduction The collection of blood from voluntary, non-remunerated blood donors is an important measure for ensuring the safety, quality, availability and accessibility of blood. The WHO recommends that all countries should be self-suffcient in all blood products and that every blood donation should be voluntary, anonymous and non-remunerated. World Health Assembly resolutions WHA 28.72 and WHA 58.13 urged member states to develop national blood transfusion services based on voluntary non-remunerated blood donation. 1 Pakistan as a signatory to these resolutions has envisioned to reach 100% voluntary non remunerated blood donation till the year 2020. In Pakistan, the total numbers of blood centres are 1830 2 with an annual estimated blood collection of 3.5 million. Currently the practice of voluntary blood donation in Pakistan is far from satisfactory. According to data collected in 2013 from 300 blood banks for WHO global database on blood safety, the estimated blood collection per 1,000 population is 16.6, only 10.6% of people donate blood voluntarily while 88.3% blood donation is by family or friends or as replacement donation. 3 Systems based on voluntary donation require effective organizational structures to facilitate community mobilization and the application of appropriate strategies for the motivation of safe donors from identifed low risk groups of the populations. In countries with similar population pyramids as Pakistan, the young population has been identifed as a key low risk donor group. Also statistical data on the prevalence of Transfusion Transmitted Infections (TTIs) in the donor population in the country and various reports on blood transfusion services during the last decade indicate that this population group provides blood donors during emergencies and disasters is accessible, educated, presents a high potential of becoming regular voluntary non remunerated blood donors. In countries still dependent on blood donation by patients’ relatives or by paid donation, as is the case with Pakistan, an increase of the proportion of voluntary donors among blood donors will enhance safety and also help to shift the responsibility for blood provision from patients’ relatives to the health care system itself. This issue has been addressed in the Pakistan’s new Blood Donor Policy 4 for on-going centralization of hospital blood banking system towards the international model with a functional and spatial separation between centralized blood production and affliated blood transfusion centres, a paradigm shift from replacement donation to voluntary blood donations. The adoption of the VNRBD concept has been recommended in the National Blood Policy and Strategic Framework (2014-20). 5 This paradigm shift will require major Hematol Transfus Int J. 2015;1(4):83‒86. 83 © 2015 Waheed et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and build upon your work non-commercially. Knowledge, attitude and practices towards blood donation in Pakistan: A nationwide survey Volume 1 Issue 4 - 2015 Usman Waheed, Muneeba Azmat, Hasan Abbas Zaheer Safe Blood Transfusion Programme, Ministry of National Health Services, Pakistan Correspondence: Usman Waheed, Safe Blood Transfusion Programme, Ministry of National Health Services, Government of Pakistan, Tel 0092-333-5638702, Fax 0092-51-9263238, Email usman.waheed07@gmail.com Received: October 25, 2015 | Published: November 09, 2015 Abstract Introduction: In Pakistan, the blood donation and transfusion practices are based on primitive practice of replacement donors whereas all around the world, the coherent practice of voluntary blood donation has replaced the replacement donation. Pakistan, as a signatory to the World Health Organization (WHO) resolution has thus envisioned reaching 100% Voluntary Non Remunerated Blood Donation (VNRBD) by the year 2020. Material and methods: The study was conducted to understand the current state of affairs of potential future donors with the objective of creating a directed Public Awareness Campaign (PAC). A cross-sectional, descriptive study was done and forms filled by 3,000 respondents from all over Pakistan. A pretested questionnaire form with 30 questions assessing the Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of the respondents was used. The results were analyzed by SPSS 17. Results: Out of the total participants, 49% were non donors and 22% were replacement donors. Main source of information on blood donation were friends and family, i.e. 65%. Misconception regarding blood donation were rampant with 62% respondents believing that blood donation can result in transfusion transmitted infection. Negative attitude stemmed from fear of the procedure in 59% respondents. A majority of respondents, i.e. 84% had access to internet, 96% had mobile phones and 44% of respondents used social media in their leisure time. This resource can be tapped for reliable and effective public awareness campaign. The reason for donation was altruism in 56% cases and pressure from family and friends 28%. Conclusion: Misconceptions and fear against voluntary donation of blood need to be addressed via a reliable and accessible medium. The internet and social media seems promising for such a Public Awareness Campaign. Keywords: blood, donation, voluntary, Pakistan, KAP Hematology & Transfusion International Journal Research Article Open Access