Frequency of blood donation for HIV check up at Shiraz Blood Transfusion Organization

Background and The safety of blood and its products depends on the health condition of the donors and in spite of screening tests, because of the window period there is the possibility of ÂÏDS being transmitted through blood transfusion, and donating blood for the purpose of HÏV check up endangers the safety of blood and its products. Therefor we decided to study the frequency of blood donation for HÏV check up and the epidemiological characteristics of the donors. This study was a cross sectional study and a four choice questionnaire was given to all volunteers who had donated at Shiraz Blood Transfusion Ôrganization in 2003. The questionnaire contains 2 types of questions: 1) sociodemographic characteristic of blood donors 2) motivation for blood donation. This survey was done on volunteers who had donated blood at Shiraz Blood Transfusion Ôrganization in 2003. The average age of these volunteers were 34.6 ± 11.3 and 82.4% of them were male and 68.6% were marred. The motivation of 56.4% of the donors was helping the others, 14.8% for HÏV check up, 15.2% for improving their health condition, 9/6% for health check up and 4% for being curious about donating blood. Blood donation for HÏV check up was significant in men, singles, and first time blood donors (p<0.05) Blood donation for HÏV check up didn’t correlate with job, education level and age. (p>0.05) Çonclusion: Ïn this study 14.8% of the blood donations was for HÏV check up, and donating blood for this purpose can be dangerous to the safety of blood, therefore we should provide HÏV test free of charge, to avoid blood donation for HÏV check up. Ôn the other hand, providing proper training about the possibility of ÂÏDS being transmitted during the windows period would prevent blood donation for this purpose.