September 25, 2008	Thursday	Ramazan 24, 1429

KARACHI, Sept 24: Health experts speaking at a ceremony here on Wednesday urged doctors and clinicians to ensure a judicious and timely blood transfusion, particularly in a situation where the country does no have matching supply to cater to the requirement of thousands of patients.

They also called for an increased awareness among patients and medicos, as well as donors, not only about the significance of blood donation but also about the requirement of various blood components, saying that it was necessary to avoid wastage of blood.

The experts, including blood transfusion specialists and health care providers from the public and private sectors, underlined the importance of acquisition and safe transfusion of blood at the ceremony, held for the launching of literature useful for obstetricians, clinicians, blood banks. The literature pertained to guidelines for collecting and storing bloods, producing blood components, handling of cases involving blood transfusion, etc.

The literature has been prepared jointly by The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the National Aids Control Programme and the Hussaini Blood Bank as a part of a recently-concluded four-year project on safe blood banking.

Sindh Minister for Health Dr Sagheer Ahmad presided over the ceremony.

The minister said that the availability of safe blood for transfusion in adequate quantity had been a great challenge for the government and the health managers for long. He stressed the need for maximum and correct utilization of every pint of human blood.

“While the government is ensuring setting up of more blood banks registered with the Sindh Blood Transfusion Authority (SBTA), there is also a need for creating awareness among the general public about blood donation,” he said.

The government is of the view that only those blood banks which ensured a fair and safe collection of blood, besides preparing various blood products perfectly and acting timely for their safe transfusion, should be allowed to operate, according to him.He observed that the patients in need of blood transfusion included children with leukemia, adults seeking heart surgery, burns victims, accident victims, thalassaemia cases, etc. The blood banks must not indulge in exploitation of patients and donors, he said, adding: “We will eliminate substandard blood banks as these are a constant threat to human lives.”

A safe blood guideline for obstetricians, prepared and meant for circulation among the professionals, emphasises that the diagnosis and effective treatment of chronic anemia in pregnancy is an important way of reducing the need for future transfusions. The decision to transfuse blood should not be based on hemoglobin levels alone, but also on the patient’s clinical need, it says.

It also stresses that every hospital should have standard operating procedures for each stage of the clinical transfusion process and all staff should be trained to follow them. The blood bank should not issue blood for transfusion unless a blood sample label and blood request form is correctly completed. The blood seeker must specify the reason for transfusion so that the most suitable product may be selected for compatibility testing.

Another booklet on blood product says, “… even where quality standards are very high, transfusion carries some risk. If standards are poor or inconsistent, transfusion may be extremely risky.”

While stressing the need for further promotion of voluntary donations, a senior blood banker, Dr Sarfraz Jafery, said that by donating blood, the individual could help make a difference between life and death, provided his or her blood was drawn by trained staff observing all safety standards. He also called for inclusion of adequate material on safe blood in the MBBS education.

Project director of the Sindh Aids Control Programme Nasir Jalbani said that there were about 2,200 HIV/Aids cases present across the province, 70 per cent of them in Karachi. The situation, he said, called for safe use of syringes and blood.

Dr Qamar Abbas and Dr Zahid Ansari also spoke.