Background/Case Studies: Blood donor questionnaires are tools used to screen prospective blood donors to determine their eligibility. There are limited data regarding blood donor questionnaires and infectious disease screening of the blood supply in Latin American countries. This study aims to survey Latin American countries to learn more about the questions used to screen prospective blood donors and the practices for infection assessment.
Study
Design/Methods: An international team of transfusion medicine professionals including medical directors and supervisors who work or collaborate with Latin American donor centers called “Comité de Investigación en Medicina Transfusional” designed a survey (16 questions) to investigate and characterize blood donor eligibility in Latin America. This survey was piloted and then distributed to eighteen Latin American countries with blood collection establishments and hospital transfusion medicine service in April 2023. A Qualtrics online survey was disseminated to different blood banks in Latin America identified through contacts and professional groups of the “Comité de Investigación en Medicina Transfusional.”
Results/Findings: Thirty-seven institutions from eight Latin American countries (México, Guatemala, Colombia, Venezuela, Chile, Perú, Paraguay, and Argentina) have responded to the survey. The survey is still open and ongoing to increase the representation of more Latin American countries. Most institutions (57%; 21/37) are donor centers ranging from 300 to 100,000 donors. Most (76%; 28/37) have a donor deferral percentage between 5% and 25%. The most common causes of deferrals were high-risk behavior (46%; 17/37) and low hemoglobin (30%; 11/37). Most donors were voluntary donors not paid (65%; 24/37), but a large percentage were directed family donors (35%; 13/37). The donor questionnaire is mainly administered by a medical technologist (73%; 27/37), and in most cases is performed within 10-15 minutes (78%; 29/37). Most (60%; 22/37) of the institutions ask about men who have sex with men, but fewer ask about HIV medications (40%; 15/37) or prophylaxis (32%; 12/37). Infection evaluation included mostly serologic assessment (81%; 30/37) for HIV, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, T. pallidum and T. cruzi rather than nucleic acid tests (5%; 2/37). Additional infectious disease testing was performed if high-risk medical history was detected for syphilis (35%; 13/37) and Chagas Disease (35%; 13/37). Conclusions: Heterogeneity exists in donor selection and infectious disease screening in Latin American countries. This survey will provide valuable information to understand Latin American blood center practices and possibly establish new strategies to decrease donor disparities across centers in Latin America. To this end, additional research of Latin American blood donor center practices is needed.
Importance of research: There are limited data regarding blood donor questionnaires and infectious disease screening of the blood supply in Latin American countries. This survey will provide valuable information to understand Latin American blood center practices and possibly establish new strategies to decrease donor disparities across centers in Latin America.
