Measure against unsafe blood transfusion

A most vital area of medical care, blood transfusion is often the last option for saving a patient's life. Now if the blood itself is suspect, the patient receiving the same is exposed to risks of getting one or more other diseases including, maybe, the deadly ones. In this context, expert opinion confirms that the country's record in safe blood transfusion is very poor. According to the Safe Blood Transfusion Society based in the capital, more than 80 per cent of the blood transfusion is simply done unscreened. This shows that no one really knows about the quality of the blood the donor or blood bank is offering or the patients are receiving. This is unthinkable when there is a great risk of transmission of a large number of communicable diseases from the donor to the receiver. An accident victim with no other health complications may end up with diseases ranging from Hepatitis A, B, C, E and G to even human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Not the last thing one would expect from treatment at a hospital.

Against this anarchy in blood collection, storage and transfusion, a healthy movement began decades ago. In the forefront of this movement was an organisation called Sandhani. It came into being with the twin purposes of helping both patients in need of blood and eyesight. The organisation grew in strength from a humble beginning into a large one with its networks spread all across the country. Credit goes to it for making people aware of donating their blood when in good health and eyes when they die. This has worked well. But in a country of 160 million, a single organisation - no matter how efficient and sincere it is - alone cannot serve the needs of the entire population. Professional blood donors are active on the premises of the largest hospital in the country. They can easily target illiterate and uncaring people for accepting their highly contaminated blood. This could not happen if the authorities there were serious enough to bring an end to the malpractice with blood donation.

Then drive against unlicensed blood banks from time to time is a proof that the illegal business continues somehow or other. Intriguingly, the hospitals given the go-ahead by the authorities also could not care less about screening blood before transfusion. This shows that there is an overall indifference to this vital aspect of healthcare. On the one hand, professional drug addicts sell their blood and on the other, blood obtained from unknown sources is also transfused without maintaining the required safety standard. Clearly, the sector needs to be brought under strict regulation and regular monitoring. Even the licensed blood banks must be brought under scrutiny to see if they comply with the rules and guidelines for collection, screening, storage and transfusion. At any stage of these, blood can decline in quality. So it is vital to have a central blood centre from where a supervisory role can be played.