March 27, 2008	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 18, 1429

KARACHI, March 26: Speakers at a seminar on Wednesday stressed the need for special initiatives to increase the number of voluntary unpaid blood donors as the existing public and private sector services were failing to fulfil the community needs of safe blood on a regular basis.

They also called for timely processing to get various components separated and screening of blood against diseases like hepatitis, HIV/Aids, malaria and syphilis and proper storage of blood and development of blood transfusion services at the taluka level as well in the province.Different experts in their presentations were unanimous about the fact that the country needed about three million blood units every year, but only half of these were available through exchange blood donors, commercial donors and voluntary donors.

Blood donation and transfusion could be made completely safe medical procedures only when the attitudes, beliefs and level of knowledge associated with blood donation and transfusions are properly addressed, the experts remarked.

The seminar was organised by the Hussaini Blood Bank in collaboration with the National Aids Control Programme, Sindh Aids Control Programme (SACP) and Sindh Blood Transfusion Authority (SBTA) on the theme of ‘Blood safety’ at a hotel, which was largely attended by representatives of NGOs campaigning for safe and timely supply of blood to needy patients.

The chief guest of the programme, Special Secretary of the Sindh Health Department Dr Abdul Majid, noted that shortage of qualified pathologists and trained supervisory staff was a major obstacle in establishing new blood banks or collection units in both the public and private sectors.

He said there was a need to develop short courses for general medical practitioners (doctors) and technicians at the district and taluka levels enabling them to supervise and maintain a blood collection and transfusion service up to an acceptable standard.

The secretary said that awareness campaigns were also needed in the case of doctors so that they could ensure a judicious prescription of blood units to patients and their correct use, while on the other hand efforts should also be made to develop a system of registering voluntary blood donors who could be called in an emergency. “Such approaches could help solve the problem of storing the blood bags for a longer period,” he added.

Dr Zahid Hassan Ansari, Programme Manager SBTA, said that the government had taken various steps to standardize blood collection and supply activities undertaken in the public and private hospitals and blood centres and the establishment of the authority – in line with a relevant ordinance in 1998 – was a major development.

Transfusion of blood was being carried out without screening till the early ’90s in the interior of Sindh due to a lack of essential facilities in the public sector and weak regulation of the unauthorized commercial blood banks. But now a disciplined and organised transfusion system was in place to a large extent at 83 SBTA-approved blood banks, including 57 NGO-run or private blood banks across the province, he said.

“A good number of blood banks, which have fulfilled the SBTA criteria, have also been allowed to work while waiting for a formal grant of registration by the authority, which was unable to meet at present for some reasons,” he informed the audience.

Talking about interaction with the registered blood banks and screening activities carried out by them, Dr Ansari said that a total of 104,494 blood bags were screened, out of which 16 showed positive for HIV, 4,724 for hepatitis B and 5,964 for hepatitis C.

Dr Syed Abdul Mujeeb, in-charge of the blood bank at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, said that Pakistan needed well coordinated team-efforts in the blood banking sector, with special emphasis on expanding the pool of blood donors and curtailing the reasons for blood transfusions.

“Blood banks were expected to provide adequate and safe blood to the community, including those who lost large amounts of blood due to serious accidents, natural disasters, various conflicts and blasts, or those who sought blood for cancer and cardiac therapies, individuals who became anaemic or had low platelet counts and pregnant women seeking antenatal care,” he noted.