Blood Donation in Lebanon: A Six-Year Retrospective Study of a Decentralized Fragmented Blood Management System

Introduction In developing countries, the lack of a sufficient and safe blood supply is a significant impediment to providing health care. Lebanon is notable for its absence of a Donor Management System to ensure continuous donor recruitment and scheduling. Herein, we report the findings of Lebanon&...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Curēus (Palo Alto, CA) Vol. 14; no. 2; p. e21858
Main Authors:	Bakhos, Jules-Joel, Khalife, Myra, Teyrouz, Yorgui, Saliba, Youakim
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	United States Cureus Inc 03-02-2022 Cureus
Subjects:	Accounting Age Antigens Blood & organ donations Blood banks Blood groups Blood products Blood transfusions Epidemiology/Public Health Gender Hematology Normal distribution Population Public Health Statistical analysis Lebanon lebanon developing world blood type prevalence fragmented blood system blood donation
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Summary:	Introduction In developing countries, the lack of a sufficient and safe blood supply is a significant impediment to providing health care. Lebanon is notable for its absence of a Donor Management System to ensure continuous donor recruitment and scheduling. Herein, we report the findings of Lebanon's first large retrospective population-based study to investigate blood types and donation that is critical for managing community blood supply. Methods The non-remunerated voluntary blood donors were recruited by the non-profit organization "Donner Sang Compter". The study spanned six years, from August 2015 to May 2021, and included 36,002 people from 18 districts throughout Lebanon's nine governorates. Results The most prevalent blood type was A (42%), followed by O (37.48%), B (13.86%), and the AB group (6.84%). RhD+ groups were predominant (88.45%), with A+ being the most (37.84%) and AB- being the least prevalent (1.05%). Furthermore, blood type and donation profiling revealed a substantial geographical variation in the frequency of blood groups, despite the relatively small country's area. As for blood donation, when gender and age were considered, young male donors dominated the pool across the country. Conclusion This study on blood type prevalence and blood donor demographics may pave the way for the development of a more coherent and integrated blood management system in Lebanon, as opposed to the fragmented and decentralized system now in existence. These findings also provide crucial clinical information for the country's future transfusion medicine policies and practices, which is vital in such a precarious part of the world.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	2168-8184 2168-8184
DOI:	10.7759/cureus.21858