We would like to make a contribution toward the recent publication in TRANSFUSION by Allain and coworkers1 examining the relative safety of first-time volunteer (FTV) and replacement donors in West Africa. We describe below our findings on the issue among first-time family (FTF) and volunteer blood donors in a hospital blood bank of Yaounde, Cameroon. The focus has always been on promoting blood safety through voluntary nonremunerated blood donations (VNRBDs) to reduce the risk of transfusion-transmissible infections (TTIs) by family/replacement and paid blood donors. However, available reports suggest that this attainment is difficult especially in resource-limited settings where the basic requirements for achieving blood safety are lacking. Furthermore, it has been observed that VNRBDs and family/replacement donors tend to be recruited from the same populations and are hence exposed to the same risks. Thus, the following retrospective analysis was conducted in a hospital blood bank covering the period from January to December 2008. It compares the risk of certain viral infections existing between the two categories of donors at recruitment, aiming at future efforts of converting one category to the other.
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