Pre-donation screening of blood for transfusion transmissible infections: The gains and the pains - experience at a resource limited blood bank

Objective: To determine whether or not pre-donation testing of blood donors affords substantial cost savings without compromise to blood transfusion safety. Predonation testing of blood donors for Transfusion Transmissible Infections (TTIs) is done in most developing countries because substantial cost savings are made from resources, materials and man-hours which would have been spent to procure infected blood units.Simple rapid test kits used in pre-donation testing is not as sensitive as the Enzyme Linked Immuno-sorbent Assay (ELISA) method used in post-donation screening in a quality assured manner.Design: It is a retrospective study where records of pre- and post-donation tests done in donor clinic of University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, between January and December 2010 were retrieved. All processes and inputs were evaluated and costs calculated for predonation testing by simple rapid techniques and post donation screening by ELISA.Results: 5000 prospective donors were tested in the study period. The cost of single rapid Pre-donation testing was less than that of single ELISA Postdonation screen. The cost of double rapid Pre-donation and Post donation ELISA screen exceeded the cost of single post donation ELISA screen. Substantial cost savings were made when single rapid Pre-donationtesting is relied on. More blood units were found reactive for the TTIs with the more expensive Postdonation ELISA.Conclusion: Pre-donation testing of blood donors was not cost effective. Although, there is an apparent savings if pre-donation testing is not followed by postdonation ELISA testing, it is done at a compromise toblood transfusion safety.Key words: pre-donation, post-donation, TTIs screening