Seroreactive Donor Demography, Notification and Counseling in Present Era of Information Technology

Abstract

Background: As blood transfusion is associated with risk of transmitting transfusion transmitted infections (TTI), another tool to prevent it is to inform, notify and counsel the donors about their seroreactive status at the blood centre. Methods: A retrospective study was carried out in department of IHBT, at BMC from January 2017 to October 2019. The reactive donors were informed by the blood bank counselor about an abnormal test result with an advice to report to the blood bank for one to one counseling and repeat testing, as well as for referral to the respective department or Integrated counseling and testing centre or sexually transmitted disease clinics of the hospital for further management by means of telephonic calls, letters and personal interrogation. The response rate of TTI reactive donors after notification was evaluated. Results: There were total 41,114 blood donation over the period of almost 3 years out of which 617 were reactive donors (1.5%) with median age of 31.5 years and female to male proportion of 7:610. History of tattooing for more than 1 year was present in 155 donors. Amongst reactive donors 336 were voluntary while 281 were replacement donors. Seropositivity for HIV, HBV and Syphilis was more in replacement donor while HCV was more in voluntary donors. HBV, HCV, Syphilis and HIV were 316(0.87%), 136(0.33%), 69(0.17%) and 56(0.13%) respectively in reference to total population. There were 4 cases of co-infection 2 for HIV+HBV, 1 for HBV + Syphilis and 1 for HIV+HCV. All donors were contacted telephonically. Inaccurate donor demographics (wrong address and phone number) resulted in our inability to notify 6 (0.97%) cases. Out of 56 HIV reactive donors 26 were voluntary and 30 were replacement donors and response rate for post donation counseling was 98%, 4 HIV donors were previously registered at ART centre and 4 became non reactive so they were again followed up after 3 months. Conclusion: A large majority of the notified donors in our study contacted their health care provider when given clear instructions to do so. Stringent notification data on HBV, HCV and Syphilis reactive donors is required. Thorough tracking system for follow up of reactive donors is required.