Safe blood is more precious than diamond/gold and is scarcely available today. This special day is initiative of World Health Organisation (WHO). It is observed on 14th june to create awareness of blood donation and also to thank the beautiful donors around the world. It provides an opportunity to highlight the life giving role of voluntary donors with no incentive, saving millions of life around the globe.
Blood is considered safe when it is packed red cells and blood products. It has to be drawn from a donor who has no known risks of exposure to transfusion transmissible microorganisms (TTM). TTM, in simple words are those microbes which gets transferred through a blood transfusion process, which may lead to infections. Blood has to be fully tested and should be negative for TTM by a whole host of tests and queries.
With the advent of HIV/AIDS, safe blood transfusion is an important procedure to be followed. It is an important aspect of blood safety to ensure that donated blood does not cause any harm. Also, to keep the blood supply safe, the blood bank has to investigate reports of any potential infections that can be transmitted. By implementing this, we can prevent bloodborne HIV transmission and substantially decrease blood discard rate due to transfusiontransmitted infections.
Guidelines for donor selection:Safe blood is more precious than diamond/gold and is scarcely available today. This special day is initiative of World Health Organisation (WHO). It is observed on 14th june to create awareness of blood donation and also to thank the beautiful donors around the world. It provides an opportunity to highlight the life giving role of voluntary donors with no incentive, saving millions of life around the globe.
Blood is considered safe when it is packed red cells and blood products. It has to be drawn from a donor who has no known risks of exposure to transfusiontransmissible microorganisms (TTM). TTM, in simple words are those microbes which gets transferred through a blood transfusion process, which may lead to infections. Blood has to be fully tested and should be negative for TTM by a whole host of tests and queries.
With the advent of HIV/AIDS, safe blood transfusion is an important procedure to be followed. It is an important aspect of blood safety to ensure that donated blood does not cause any harm. Also, to keep the blood supply safe, the blood bank has to investigate reports of any potential infections that can be transmitted. By implementing this, we can prevent bloodborne HIV
transmission and substantially decrease blood discard rate due to transfusiontransmitted infections.
Guidelines for donor selection:
Every blood donation program has set of criteria to be followed for well being of both recipients and donors. Here are few important criteria for selecting donors.
1.Smoking/tobacco consumption:
There are many health issues associated with smoking, for any surgical procedure, smoking can lead to lifethreatening respiratory complication with anesthesia usage. Many issues such as mucus accumulation, blood clots in veins, decreased ability to clear lungs, heart and vascular diseases are caused due to smoking and tobacco chewing. Thus, person who is free of tobacco consumption for at least eight weeks prior to blood donation are encouraged to protect long term health.
2.Drug usage:
Once the potential donors are identified, it is equally important to ensure that the donor does not use any illicit drug. The drug such as marijuana in any form should be avoided. Also the donors who regularly use pain medication may experience higher postoperative pain. Such individuals must see a surgeon before donating the blood. Drug screening tests are conducted on individuals to check if there is any concern due to drug usage. Any failure to comply for drug screening tests would be considered as decline in blood donation.
3.Health issues :
It is important to identify the healthy donors. If an individual has past history of suffering from problems such as high blood pressure, diabetes, gestational diabetes, polycystic kidney disease, substance abuse, psychiatric illness, heart/lung disease, low renal function and many more, a donor must be declined.
4.Obesity:
Obesity is a vital factor for kidney malfunctioning. Individuals with a body mass index of
5.Age/Weight:
Individuals between age of 18 to 65 years are accepted for blood donation. Kids, teenagers, infants, aged citizens must be declined. Also, prescribed weight for an individual to donate blood is 45 kg and above.
6. A potential donor must have a pack cell volume of 40-55(men) and 35-50(women). This is to avoid further reduction in donor PCV which can forcibly induce anaemia.
7. Donors are usually screened for infectious disease most preferably hepatitis B, hepatitis C, Venereal disease research laboratory (vdrl) screen for syphilis and lastly Human immuno deficiency virus (HIV). Blood trunsfused to a patient should be able to offer him maximum benefit while minimizing or eliminating hazardous implications.
