ABSTRACT Introduction: The safety of a blood transfusion practice is anchored on safe blood from a healthy donor, while further protecting the donor from future harm. This study aimed to evaluate the hematological parameters of blood donors in view of their donor category to aid in assessing the safety threshold in terms of donation frequency. Methods: This study made use of the descriptive cross-sectional design. The blood donors were bled and their samples analyzed using a hematology autoanalyzer. Results: A total of 178 male blood donors were recruited. Most of the donors were aged 18 to 39 years and were mostly students. A greater part of them were repeat donors who had donated blood more than four times. First- and second-time donors constituted the majority of the voluntary donors. While the total red cell count was significantly lower in repeat third-time donors, the hemoglobin and hematocrit of the first-time donors were significantly higher than those of the repeat fourth-time donors. The mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH) and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) of the first-time donors were significantly higher than those of the repeat fifth-time donors. The red cell distribution width (RDW) and mean platelet volume (MPV) were significantly lower in the first-time donors from those of the sixth- and seventh-time donors, respectively. Most of the fifth-time donors have subclinical anemia. There was more subclinical anemia in commercial donors than in voluntary donors. Conclusion: Repeat donors more than fifth-time donors are at risk of donation-induced iron deficiency anemia.

ABSTRACT Introduction The West African region has been lagging in terms of the availability of, and accessibility to, safe blood. According to the 2016 World Health Organization (WHO) Global Status Report on Blood Safety and Availability, none of the West African countries met the WHO benchmark of 10 blood units per 1000 inhabitants. This study is aimed at discussing the blood transfusion status of West African countries in the pre-COVID-19 period and analyze the capacity to respond to the COVID-19 blood crisis, as well as to outline the panacea. Methods Secondary data were extracted from published reports, journal articles and web pages, reviewed and analyzed. Result All the West African countries have recorded confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths. The confirmed cases have reached 55,697, with 1069 deaths and a fatality rate of 1.9%, as of June 17, 2020. The assessed countries lagged in most of the WHO benchmarks for effective blood transfusion services. Conclusion Blood transfusion services in the West African region lacked the basic benchmark practice and policy, are not coordinated and may find it hard to tackle the blood transfusion crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic.