KARACHI, Dec 20: Speakers on the third day of the international conference on infection control stressed the need for spreading awareness among doctors and other health workers regarding the common blood-borne viruses and promotion of safe and reasonable transfusion of blood in patients.

A couple of them expressed the view that blood transfusion was a sensitive and delicate method and as such the government should devise a policy for surgeons and all medical professionals to ensure transfusion of bloods.

The less you go for blood transfusions the less are the risks to the lives of patients accepting blood, said one of the speakers, adding that that problem of infected blood transfusion could be reduced also with the promotion of voluntary donation of blood by individuals and not through replacement donations.

The international conference, which concluded on Wednesday, was jointly organised by the Infection Control Society Pakistan and the International Federation of Infection Control at the Liaquat National Hospital.

ICSP president Dr M Rafiq Khanani told Dawn that the conference had contributed a lot to the dissemination of scientific knowledge and raised awareness among the medical community about infection control.

Prof Shaheen Mehtar from South Africa in her presentation on options for treatment of clinical waste said the abuse of clinical waste could be reduced dramatically if source segregation was applied.

Dr Syed A. Sattar from the University of Ottawa said that proper and regular hand hygiene was crucial for preventing and controlling the spread of infections. Dr Nizam Damani from Ireland, UK, said that the delivery of an effective infection control service required trained and motivated infection control practitioners whose job, among other things, was to identify unsafe and hazardous infection control practices, recommend cost-effective preventative measures and help healthcare facilities to set priorities.

Dr Bushra was critical of the excessive transfusion of blood to pregnant women. She said that a majority of the gynaecologists preferred to get blood transfused in patient during the stage of pregnancy without knowing the actual needs, which sometimes complicate the process.

Dr Saba Jamal, Dr Tahir Shamsi, Dr Saeed Sheikhani, Dr Moinuddin Ahmad, Dr Irfan Ahmad, Dr Khalid Zafar Hashmi, Brig Mohammad Ayub, Dr Farhat Abbas Bhatti, Dr Zahid Ansari and Dr S. A. Mujeeb also spoke during the first two sessions of the day.