Response rate of Malaysian blood donors with reactive screening test to transfusion medicine unit calls

Blood donors with reactive screening test results are requested to come in for counseling by letter and telephone call. It has been noticed many donors responded to neither the letters nor the telephone calls. We evaluated 589 cases with reactive screening test results (208 positive for hepatitis C, 209 for hepatitis B, 85 for VDRL and 87 for HIV). In the hepatitis C positive group 61 donors (29.3%) did not respond and 4.7% missed their follow-up appointment. Similarly low response rates were noted with the HBV (58.9%) and VDRL (67.1%) positive groups. Among HIV positive donors 46.0% failed to respond to multiple calls. We conclude that blood donors in Malaysia have a poor response to calls from the blood transfusion unit. A review of the effectiveness of the current deferral system and an increased public knowledge of transmissible infectious diseases may encourage blood donors to have a better response rate.