The first data from the haemovigilance system and its achievements in Iran

Background: Haemovigilance is defined as the surveillance of adverse reactions occurring indonors and in recipients of blood components. The ultimate purpose of haemovigilance is toprevent the repetition of adverse events and reactions. Since 2008, Iranian Blood TransfusionOrganization (IBTO) was known responsible for establishment of haemovigilance system,firstly in 40-50 hospital and secondly in all remained Iranian hospitals. Iranian NationalHaemovigilance system does not include surveillance of adverse events in donors orregistration of sever incidents connected with collection, processing and storage of blood andblood components. Surveillance of adverse transfusion events in recipients was started in2009. This system was established in 74 hospitals throughout Iran from October 2009 toAugust 2012.Material and methods: The national forms purposed for blood components requesting andreporting adverse transfusion reactions (RATRF) were prepared by the centralhaemovigilance office of IBTO.Results: The data collected [Adverse Transfusion Reactions, ( ATR)] came from 43 hospitalsin 12 provinces since 2009.Overall 601acute adverse reactions were reported, which isequivalent to 0.8 reactions/1,000 units of blood components distributed. There were 152reports of Febrile Non Hemolytic Transfusion Reactions(FNHTR),337 reports of Allergicreactions,13 cases of Acute Immune Intra vascular Hemolysis(AHTR), 4 cases of NonImmune Hemolysis, 4 reports of Transfusion Associated Circulatory Overload(TACO) and88 reports of Not classified Signs & Symptoms.Conclusions: This study is the first Iranian report on blood adverse transfusion reactions. Thisdate indicate that the most prevalent ATR were allergy (56%) and fever (25.3%),respectively, suggesting a very higher rate than global rate (0.5-3%). The rate of AHTR inour evaluation was 2.1%. This reported rate is higher than the global rate(1/76000).Each ofthe TACO and Non Immune Hemolysis rate in our evaluation was 0.7%, that is lower thantheir mentioned global rates(<1%).