Infectious disease markers in autologous and directed donations

Abstract

Autologous collections are strongly advocated by the New South Wales Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service (BTS) and have increased more than sevenfold since 1988. Directed donations, although not promoted, have also increased during this time. The prevalence of infectious disease markers (HIV, hepatitis C, hepatitis B and syphilis) in donations collected by the BTS from different donor groups including overall volunteer homologous, first-time volunteer homologous, autologous and directed were evaluated over a 42-month period. Donations from first-time volunteer homologous donors had the highest prevalence of hepatitis B and C. Autologous donations had a significantly higher prevalence of hepatitis B, hepatitis C and syphilis compared with overall volunteer homologous donations. The percentage of directed donations testing positive for either hepatitis B or C was higher than overall volunteer homologous donations, but not statistically significant. This study demonstrates that donations from first-time donors are the least safe, that the crossover of autologous blood into the volunteer homologous pool decreases the safety of that pool and suggests that directed donations may not be as safe as volunteer homologous donations and cannot be generally advocated at this time.

Knowledge about Blood Donation among Undergraduate Students of GMC, Patiala, Punjab, India

“…Medical students know the importance and need of deferrals so they can self exclude themselves in situations when they are not fit to donate. This will ensure safe donor selection, as directed donors may hide their occult illness history [29,30] and hence compromising the safety of blood. In addition, medical students can be a source of guidance to their friends, family and general public and can motivate them about voluntary blood donation.…”

Audit of a paediatric directed donation programme

“…The specific risk for blood obtained from directed donors in the WCH DDP remains unknown. There is no convincing evidence to demonstrate that blood from directed donors is safer in terms of transfusion‐transmitted infection than that from other volunteers, nor is there evidence to suggest that the benefits of a DDP outweigh the potential risks 6,11 .…”

Compatible-Incompatible Live Donor Kidney Exchanges

“…Using markers for infectious agents, blood from directed blood donors recruited by patients or family members was shown in several studies to be no better than or less safe than blood from volunteer blood donors (13,14). Donors who feel pressure to help a relative or friend may be "less than fully truthful" and hide unhealthy habits or addictions (15).…”