KARACHI, May 5: Doctors have called for establishment of a blood safety authority to check the growth of ill-equipped blood banks.

Dr S.M. Afaq, assistant director, National Institute of Child Health said that very few blood collections were under constant observation of haematologists and most blood banks, particularly those in rural areas, were being run by technicians only.

He said that blood banks in the public sector were screening blood by the hemagglutination test and the better ELISA method introduced recently was only being used by major hospitals.

He said from 1996 to 2000, 1.17 million units collected by blood banks in Punjab could not be tested for hepatitis C but proved a prevalence of hepatitis B virus at the ratio of 3 per cent.—APP