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SUKKUR, Oct 31: Sale of unscreened blood is on the rise in Sindh by blood banks. As a result, patients receiving tainted blood are contracting deadly diseases like cancer, HIV, hepatitis-B and C.
Screening of blood is mandatory for blood banks under the laws and a person can be fined Rs500,000 and jailed for three years for selling unscreened blood. However, no blood bank personnel has so far been punished for the crime and if someone is caught, he is left after being given just a warning.
Establishment of blood banks which does not screen blood is on the rise in interior of Sindh but no one is there to check them.
The government has formed a Sindh Blood Transfusion Authority to check such blood banks but when it finds someone violating the laws, health officials set them free after allegedly getting illegal gratification.
On Oct 12, the authority raided 17 laboratories in Sindh, including Karachi, and found that blood stocked in these laboratories was expired and unscreened. Thirteen of the blood banks were situated in interior of Sindh, including Larkana, Sanghar, Hyderabad and Nawabshah districts.
The team which conducted the raids had declared the blood injurious to health and asked all EDOs, health, and the Sindh secretary for health to lodge FIRs against the laboratories but health authorities issued directives not to register FIRs and set the held persons free after giving warning.
Residents of Sukkur, including doctors, have demanded that the government should take notice of the matter. They also called for action against the 17 blood banks.
KILLED: A man was killed by armed people over a matrimonial dispute in the Khuda Bux Mahar village, Ghotki district, on Sunday night.
The armed people barged into the house of Sabir Mahar and shot him dead while he was asleep.
Mir Hazar Mahar, father of the deceased, registered a case against Mour Mahar, Kanbeer Mahar, Manzoor Mahar and two other persons.
MEETING: DCO Shafiq Ahmad Khoso held a meeting with the divisional superintendent, Pakistan Railways, and other officers of civic agencies to resolve problems of people regarding the railways and the district government.
Matters of lifting of garbage from railways lines colony, disposal of sewage from railways land, street lighting in railways areas, repair of roads and bridges were discussed.
ROAD REPAIR: An amount of Rs7.4 million have been allocated by the Sindh government to carry out 17 schemes of repair and maintenance of roads in the Sukkur district.
According to details, Rs500,000 each have been allocated for two schemes of the Rohri-Arore Salehpat road, Rs900,000 have been assigned for the road from Mehrabpur to Arab Mahar, Rs400,000 to repair a portion of Arore to Mando Dero-Sangrar road, Rs500,000 for another portion of the Mando Dero Sangrar road, Rs400,000 each for two schemes of the road from the National Highway to the Dafar Jatoi road and Rs500,000 for the road from Dara Wahan to Pir Koko.
Few more schemes of roads have also been selected to get funds for repair and maintenance.
