Journal of Punjab Academy of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology

Pre donation blood donor screening is done for the safety of the donor and recipient. Individuals disqualified from donating blood are known as “deferred” donors. Donor deferral might appear as discrimination and violation of a human right. Deferring prospective donors often leaves them with negative feelings about themselves as well as the blood donation process. Additionally these donors are less likely to return for blood donation in future. So causes of the pre-blood donation deferral need to be studied systematically to improve the donation rate. Retrospective observational study was done for whole blood donations over a period from April 2016 to December 2016. Out of 16298 blood donors who came to donate blood, 15783 (96.84%) were males and 515 (03.16%) were females. Total 1766 (10.83%) blood donors were deferred, out of which 1706 (96.6%) were temporary deferrals and 60 (3.4%) were permanently deferred. Overall more males (1413) were deferred than females (353) but females had higher deferral rate (68.5%) than males (8.9%). Effective measures need to be initiated to address the issue of lost donors due to temporary deferrals which can be reduced by providing detailed information and educating the donors & camp organizer by blood bank staff. Donors with permanent deferrals should be counseled, notified and referred to specialists for further treatment.