Study of demographical characteristic of blood donors donating blood in the voluntary blood donation camps with recommendations for safe blood transfusion to recipients

Patients with acute blood loss or symptomatic anaemia frequently require blood replacement therapy in Accidents, Burns, Heart surgery, Organ transplants, Leukemia, Cancer, Sickle cell anemia, Thalassemia, Hemophilia and many others. Although blood replacement therapy is generally safe, it should be understood that certain risks accompany the transfusion of blood and plasma components ranging from self-limited febrile responses to life-threatening intravascular haemolysis¹. People suffering from certain infections may have the agent of disease present in their blood. In some cases the organisms persist in the blood for long periods and in sufficient numbers to represent a high risk of transmission. In our country due to lack of infra-structural services, irregular supply of blood in respect to demand, lack of congenial working environment and surveillance and in our country 80% blood used as whole blood contrary to WHO recommendation (90:10)². Most of the blood comes from organization of blood donation camps of which supply 60 lakhs unit of blood through voluntary donation but demand is 1 crore unit in India per year and in West Bengal supply is 8 Lakhs unit but demand is 10 Lakhs unit per year. So there is always a gap between supply and demand. In West Bengal per 1000 population blood donor is only 9 out of which 7 through voluntary donation. If it can be done 11 per 1000 population per year then only demand can be compensated. In our study of Voluntary Blood Donation Camps (VBDC) organized at Serampore area for the year 2012–13, it was noted that out of total 93 camps organized in the same year, total number of Blood donors were 4784 of which female contributed 17.3% and male contributed 82.7%. and 488 donors (10.20%) were discarded by Blood Bank Medical Officers (BBMO) in the camps during clinical examinations. In this study it has shown to be needed for proper blood donor counseling which ensures safe blood supply, taking care of donors by providing information, education and counseling and provide referral services for future care and management of donors and stresses should be imposed on clinical use of rational use of blood and blood components⁴.