Comparing walk-in and call-responsive donors in a national and a private hospital in Nairobi.
BACKGROUND
The non-remunerated donors in many of Kenya's hospital blood banks are either call responsive (CR) or walk-in (WI) donors. These donors impact differently on the national blood transfusion services.


OBJECTIVE
To examine the walk-in (WI) and call responsive (CR) donors' influence on the national blood transfusion services.


METHODS
A retrospective study.


METHODS
A national referral and a private hospital in Nairobi, Kenya.


METHODS
Donor's age, sex, whether walk in or responded to a call to donate for a relative or emergency blood requirement and test results of; HIV, HBsAg, syphilis and HCV.


RESULTS
Between April 1999 and April 2000, 10,295 persons donated blood either responding to a call or walked in. The national referral hospital had 8,563 (83%) and private hospital 1,732 (17%). In total, 2.5% were WI and 97.5% CR. The lowest age of donors were CR 15, and WI 18 years. Of 1,138 (11.1%) rejected were 4.6% WI and 11.2% CR donors. The infections 5.8% HIV, 4% HBSAg, 1.2% VDRL and 0.2% HCV were statistically significant in WI compared to CR (p=0.002), also in female compared to male donors (p=0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
This study shows that walk in donors were fewer than call responsive but had less rates of transfusion associated infections.
Abdalla
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Department of Haematology and Blood Transfusion, College of Health Sciences, University of Nairobi, P.O. Box 19676, Nairobi, Kenya.
Mwanda
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Rana
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D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001771:Blood Banks / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001782:Blood Donors / Q000145:classification* / Q000523:psychology; D001803:Blood Transfusion / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017848:Blood-Borne Pathogens / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005260:Female; D016304:Hospitals, Private / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006779:Hospitals, Public / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007630:Kenya / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D012698:Serologic Tests; D014777:Virus Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control