Rizwana Kousar, Nazish Saqlain, Nisar Ahmed.
Malarial Parasite Screening in Blood Donors; Experience at The Children’s Hospital & Institute of Child Health, Lahore.
Pak Paed J Nov ;40(3):143-7.

Background: Malaria can be transmitted through transfusion of blood infected with Plasmodia, which can be disastrous for an immune compromised recipient. The screening of donated blood units for malarial parasite should be practiced. Objective: To determine the frequency of malaria in blood donors and identification of Plasmodium species. The sub aim of the study was to find the frequency of different blood groups among the donors. Material and Methods: It was an observational study carried out at the Department of Hematology and Transfusion medicine, The Children’s Hospital and Institute of Child Health, Lahore from 1st July, 2015 to 31st December, 2015. After taking informed consent, 6000 healthy donors who fulfilled the blood donation criteria were consecutively selected. Immuno chromatographic rapid diagnostic kits (ICT) were used for screening of malaria followed by the examination of Geimsa stained peripheral blood smears of all the positive cases under light microscope for species identification. The data was analyzed by using SPSS 16. The quantitative variables including age and weight are presented as mean and standard deviation while qualitative variables including malaria positive cases, species of Plasmodium and types of blood groups are presented as frequency. Results: Out of 6000 donors, 5999 were males and 1 was female. 30(0.5%) donors were found positive for malaria with 28 of them infected with Plasmodium vivax. B+ve was the most common blood group among the donors studied. Conclusion: The study concludes that frequency of malaria in blood donors is 0.5%and the screening of malaria should be done in all donated blood units.

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