Blood Donor Selection And Deferral Pattern Pak Armed Forces Med J2016; 66(6):898-902 898 DEMOGRAPHIC FEATURES OF DONORS AND CAUSES OF BLOOD DONOR DEFERRAL AT ARMED FORCES INSTITUTE OF TRANSFUSION, RAWALPINDI Amina Nadeem, Nuzhat Salamat*, Nadeem Iqbal**, Noor Ul Ain Siddique, Urwa Ejaz, Hareem Azhar, Rafia Masud Army Medical College/ National University of Medical Sciences (NUMS) Rawalpindi Pakistan, *Pakistan Naval Ship Shifa Karachi Pakistan, **Military Hospital/ National University of Medical Sciences (NUMS) Rawalpindi Pakistan ABSTRACT Objective: To determine the demographic features and causes of donor deferral in blood donors. Study Design: Descriptive study. Place and Duration of Study: Conducted at the Armed Forces Institute of Transfusion (AFIT) for a period of 1 year from Jun 2012 to May 2013. M aterial and M ethods: Donors with ages ranging from 18-60 years who reported to the blood bank were incorporated in this study. A comprehensive history was taken from all the potential donors through a structured proforma. A detailed general physical examination was done by the appointed doctor at the blood bank. Furthermore, laboratory testing of the blood samples of potential donors was done. On this basis, donors were accepted or deferred. Results: The commonest cause of the donor deferral was hepatitis C (HCV) (28.6%), the second leading cause was anaemia (24%) and the third leading cause was hepatitis B (HBV) (16.8%). Syphilis was also a major cause of donor deferral causing the rejection of 10.4% donors. Conclusion: The donor deferral rate is 7.3% and the leading course of donor deferral are chronic infections like hepatitis C and B and diseases like anaemia. Keywords: Blood donors, Demography, Donor deferral. INTRODUCTION Blood donation is vital to the provision of transfusion services in a country. Throughout the world, the need of whole blood and blood products is increasing. An efficient blood donor programme is important for providing safe transfusion services. As the demand for blood units increases, there is a need to recruit more donors especially non-remunerated, voluntary repeat donors. They are the most desirable because they are already encouraged enough and have undergone all the screening procedure 1,2 . Unfortunately, this is not the case in most of the countries. In approximately 90% cases in various countries, paid or replacement donors are still employed 3 . Blood donor eligibility is determined by medical interviews, based on the guidelines set on a National level for donor selection. This is followed by a thorough general physical examination 4 . Donor screening criteria are established to protect both donors and recipients 5 . Screening, however, can lead to temporary or permanent deferral of the potential donors, thus reducing the size of the donor pool. Many of the donors are deferred because of history of jaundice due to Hepatitis B or C, HIV/ AIDS, a positive test for syphilis, low haematocrit or haemoglobin leading to anaemia, being underweight, due to other medical diagnosis and high risk behaviour 6,7 . Every blood transfusion carries a possible danger for transfusion transmitted Infections (TTIs) 8,9 . Leading among these emerging pathogens are the Hepatitis B and C viruses, Treoponema pallidum, and Malarial parasite 10 . The international literature also reports hepatitis viruses E and G, human immunodeficiency virus, the West Nile virus and HHV8. Among This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Correspondence: Dr Amina Nadeem, Associate Professor, Physiology Dept, Army Medical College Rawalpindi Pakistan Email: nadeemamina@yahoo.com Received: 27 Apr 2016; revised received: 03 Jul 2016; accepted: 25 Jul 2016 Original Article Open A ccess