KARACHI, Feb 7: The blood transfusion services in Pakistan leave a lot to be desired. Use of whole blood in transfusions is as high as 98 per cent. And proper storage conditions are maintained in less than one per cent of the blood banks. Similarly, only a small proportion of them are able to screen blood for dangerous diseases.

Overwhelming use of whole blood is undesirable not only because a lot of blood goes to waste unnecessarily but also since it is wrong from the medical point of view. And lack of a screening system means that deadly diseases can, and do, get transmitted through the transfusion services.

This was stated on Saturday by several experts, both local and foreign, at a symposium on blood banking. The symposium entitled "Blood banking: It's in our blood" was organized by the Healthcare Academy for Knowledge, Karachi, and is considered to be the first of its kind in the country.

At the inaugural session of the two-day symposium Prof Masood Hameed Khan, Vice-Chancellor of the Dow University of Health Sciences, said the Safe Blood Transfusion bill, recently passed by Sindh Assembly, would help regulate blood banking. It would also help curb the spread of deadly diseases transmitted through unregistered banks.

He called for the proper implementation of the said bill. Many blood banks in the private sector were not registered. According to him, with the passage of time awareness of safe blood had increased among the people.

The professor said before the '70s blood donation was in total control of professional donors who used to sell blood for money. In 1976, some students of the Dow Medical College formed the Patients Welfare Association at Civil Hospital Karachi to encourage family blood donation.

Initially, the people considered the PWA to be one of the bodies controlled by professional donors. However, the PWA ultimately managed to introduce a culture of safe blood transfusion, said Prof Khan.

He said all the blood banks should be properly registered and should supply safe blood to patients to prevent spread of deadly diseases like Hepatitis and AIDS.

Dr James T. Perkins of the American Board of Pathologists, in his keynote speech, said in the US blood banking was highly regulated. "We want to see the Pakistani blood banks also at same level."

He said government regulations were essential in this regard. Delivery of safe blood gave tremendous results. "This helps in improvement in the condition of trauma patients and in care of cancer patients, particularly children suffering from leukemia."

The Technical Director at the University of Chicago Hospitals' Blood Bank, Prof M.A. Pothiawala, said American experts had come over to Pakistan to share their experience with professionals here.

The chief organizer of the symposium, Syed Asif Azeem, said blood banking in Pakistan was far more difficult than in the US. He said the symposium would help Pakistani blood bank operators to assess the current needs, leadership skills and culture in their own organizations.

Prof Essa Abdullah expressed his concern over the lack of regulations in this area, and added that anyone could open a blood bank. Dr Syed Abdul Mujeeb of the JPMC said the total annual requirement of blood in Pakistan was 1.5 million units or bags.

Between 5 and 7 per cent of the bags were unsafe as they were infected with Hepatitis or HIV/AIDS. "We should take serious measures to save the thousands of patients who receive unsafe blood every year."