Risk behaviour among blood donors who give blood in order to be tested for the human immunodeficiency virus

Abstract
Background and Objectives: There has been concern that some individuals may donate blood primarily motivated by the easy access to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing, and that such donors may represent a risk to the transfusion service. In this article we focus on the risk behaviour of donors who reported that they gave blood in order to be HIV tested.Materials and Methods: Anonymous questionnaires were given to 5859 blood donors. The response rate was 70%.Results: Of the responders, 2·8% reported to have donated blood in order to be HIV tested. However, 87% of the donation‐for‐test group did not have any identified risk behaviour.Conclusions: The proportion who donated blood in order to be HIV tested was higher than expected, but the majority of the group did not have any identifiable HIV risk.

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