The pattern of blood donation and transfusion transmissible infections in the National Blood Transfusion Service in north central Nigeria

Background : Blood for transfusion in Nigeria is largely collected from family members or commercial blood donors who would rather conceal information that could disqualify them from blood donation. The blood service is expected to transform blood sources to voluntary, guided by altruism and self-risk assessment and deferral. We determined the of pattern of blood donors in North Central Nigeria and the crude prevalence of transfusion transmissible infections among blood donor types. Methods : This retrospective study was carried out at the North Central Zonal Centre of the National Blood Transfusion Service in Jos. Records of blood donors from January 2009 to December 2013 were studied for type of donation and the pathogenic blood borne viruses. Results : The age distribution of blood donors showed increasing successful recruitment of young people into the donor pool with 36.2% blood collection from those aged 18-25 and 34.8% from 26-35 years. 21,330 (70.5%) were males. 49.0%, 33.5%, 3.5%, (14.0%) and = 1% blood donors were firsttime voluntary, regular voluntary, lapsed voluntary, family replacement and autologous blood donors respectively. 5612 (18.5%) donors, were reactive to transfusion transmissible infections with a lower prevalence of 9.1% among regular blood donors. Conclusion : We conclude that the National Blood Transfusion Service has developed a growing voluntary blood donor base, mainly young adults in our region. Increasing the retention rate of our donors could reduce transfusion transmissible infections. Keywords : National Blood Transfusion Service, Blood Donors, Transfusion Transmissible Infections