DONOR SELECTION - THE EXCLUSION OF HIGH-RISK DONORS

Selection of donors is an important means to improve the overall safet y of the blood supply. Since the AIDS epidemic emerged and after the i ntroduction of sensitive screening tests for HIV, it became clear that blood donations given in the infectious 'window' period, formed the m ost important risk for recipients of blood products. Therefore, select ion criteria became more and more stringent to exclude these high risk donors. Means to exclude high risk donors are nonremuneration, includ ing a clear policy to provide no incentives which can be readily conve rted to cash, the avoidance of replacement donations, the discourageme nt of 'HIV test seeking' donors, education and information of donors a bout HIV and other blood-borne infectious diseases and the in depth qu estioning about risk behaviour, orally as well as by questionnaires. A lthough this policy of donor selection is recognized by most blood cen ters in the world, the efficacy of this selection has not been well do cumented. Therefore in future, studies should be performed to base the se selection criteria on evidence.