Govt approves nat\\\'l blood policy to stop malpractices

The government has finalised a national blood policy, incorporating penalty provisions, for ensuring safe transfusion of blood and checking its illegal trade.
The policy also includes a series of measures to prevent the existing malpractices in transfusion and uses of blood in the country, officials said.
The ministry of health and family welfare recently gave its nod to the National Blood Policy, under which establishment of a national blood transfusion centre has also been proposed.
Besides, the other salient features of the policy are ensuring application of modern technology in blood collection, preservation and screening of blood, sources mentioned.
In view of the rising 'blood trade', use of unscreened blood and mushrooming of private blood banks without licences, the government has approved the policy to bring everything in the area under law and a policy guideline.
Usually, a 'law' is formulated upon the approval of a related policy, but regarding blood the law was passed earlier, in the year 2002, in parliament due to an emergency need at that time.
The government issued notification for publishing the gazette on the approved policy a couple of days ago, and it is in the process of printing now, a source at the National Safe Blood Transfusion Society said.
According to the law, there are penalty provisions for illegal trade in blood, defective transfusion and for violation of rules.
The approved policy has also kept the provisions for financial and jail penalty of the law, which was passed a decade back.
Apart from the penalty and other measures in the law, the approved policy has kept the provision for setting up of a blood transfusion centre, compulsory use of screened blood, training facilities for the technical manpower, use of blood components, instead of whole blood, and earning money by exporting fractionated components.
In the policy guideline, it is said the government wants to introduce new technology in fractionating blood into components and increase its use, instead of the whole blood.
The approved policy has also taken measures to manufacture reagents and blood bags locally, and use the proposed fractionating facilities for other countries as 'contract fractionation' for blood.
Professor Ashadul Islam, head of the Safe Blood Transfusion at BSMMU, said approval of the long-awaited blood policy would help the country in ensuring safe blood transfusion.
He said although a law on blood transfusion has been there for a decade, the approved policy has taken a series of measures that will change the entire scenario in blood transfusion.
He said like the developed countries, "Our government also has finally approved some measures in the policy like adopting high technology in blood fractionation, that is, separation of blood components."
He said with such a policy in place, illegal blood trade would stop automatically, as people would use components. He added the strict laws would protect people from using unscreened blood.
The BSMMU professor said currently a good number of blood banks are operating in the country without licences and there are no trained technicians in these blood banks to screen the blood in the right way.
He said at the upazila levels the scenario is dangerous. The patients are taking unscreened blood and there is a brisk trade in it, he added.
He said in the policy the government has made it compulsory to have licences for blood banks at the private level.
An official at the ministry of health and family welfare said although the law has been there ahead of the policy due to urgency, the approved policy accommodated a good number of provisions to stop the current mismanagement and adopt new technology, like in the developed world, for ensuring safe blood transfusion across the country.