roblem Statement: Access to safe and adequate blood and blood
product remain a mirage in most settings in Africa thirty years after
the first WHO resolution (WHA28.72) to address the issue of
universal and equitable access to safe blood as well as effective and rational
use of blood and blood products. There is paucity of information on the
haematological parameters of blood donors in Sokoto, Nigeria. The present
study was, therefore, designed to assess some haematological indices of
blood donors using a combination of packed cell volume, total white cell
count and platelet count.
Approach: One hundred and thirty -six consecutively recruited whole blood
donors, comprising of 108 family replacements, 20 commercial remunerated
and 8 voluntary donors, constituted the study population. Three
haematological parameters; packed cell volume, total white cell count and
platelet count were assessed using standard techniques.
Results: We observed a significant difference between the PCV and platelet
count between the 3 classes of blood donors. There was no significant
differences between the total white count among the different classes of
donors. The values of PCV, total white cell count and platelet count for the
voluntary, family replacement and commercial remunerated donors were
(40.25 ± 4.46, 9.38 ± 2.00 and 390.23 ± 64.70), (41.02 ± 4.46, 6.37 ± 2.79 ,
271.44 ± 109.10) and (28.10 ± 4.15, 5.39 ± 3.44 and 132.50 ± 40.30)
respectively. We observed a positive and significant correlation between
commercial remunerated blood donation and low PCV (r= 0.68) and platelet
count (r=0.72), p=0.01. Family replacement donors constituted a significant number of blood donors (79.41%) compared to (1.71%) and (5.88%)
respectively for commercial remunerated and voluntary donors respectively.
Conclusion: Despite the resolution by the WHO urging member states to
develop national blood transfusion services based on voluntary nonremunerated
blood donation, family and commercial remunerated donation
still predominate in most settings in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA). The findings
from this study indicates that the PCV and platelet count is significantly
lower among commercial remunerated donors and re-emphasize the need to
formulate policies on ways to seriously and innovatively attract and retain
voluntary non-remunerated blood donors. Voluntary non-remunerated
blood donors are considered safer than family replacement donors and, in
particular, commercial or professional donors. Establishing a panel of
regular, voluntary non-remunerated blood donors is therefore the most
effective way of ensuring adequate and safe supplies of safe blood and on a
continuing basis.