Comparing walk-in and call-responsive donors in a national and a private hospital in Nairobi

Abstract

Background: The non-remunerated donors in many of Kenya's hospital blood banks are either call responsive (CR) or walk-in (Wl) donors. These donors impact differently on the national blood transfusion services. Objective: To examine the walk-in (Wl) and call responsive (CR) donors' influence on the national blood transfusion services. Design: A retrospective study. Setting: A national referral and a private hospital in Nairobi, Kenya. Main outcome measures: 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 Wl and 97.5% CR. The lowest age of donors were CR 15, and Wl 18 years. Of 1,138 (11.1%) rejected were 4.6% Wl and 11.2% CR donors. The infections 5.8% HIV, 4% HBSAg, 1.2% VDRL and 0.2% HCV were statistically significant in Wl compared to CR (p=0.002), also in female compared to male donors (p=0.001). Conclusion: This study shows that walk in donors were fewer than call responsive but had less rates of transfusion associated infections.