Impact Analysis of the National Guidelines for Blood Donor Selection in India: A Single Center Study

National Blood Transfusion Council recently released the national guidelines for blood donor selection in India. Some changes in the currently used donor selection criteria have been proposed. However, its effect on future donor availability and deferral has not been studied. To enumerate the changes in current donor selection criteria and analyze its impact on the future blood donor availability vis-à-vis current deferral rate. One year data for both selected and deferred whole blood donors was analyzed retrospectively. Questionnaire forms of the selected donors were screened to analyze the responses given at the time of donation. A total of 4494 donors presented for whole blood donation and 995 (22.1%) were deferred for the various reasons. NBTC has proposed 12 major changes in the currently used donor selection criteria with 11 resulting into increased deferral of the blood donors. These changes would lead to an additional deferral of 32.5% of the currently eligible blood donors mostly due to the change in the blood pressure cut off. National blood donor selection guidelines in the current form would lead to a very high deficit of available blood donors in India. There is an urgent need to reconsider the merit of the changes suggested in these guidelines.