KARACHI, Feb 11: About 40 per cent of the annual 1.5 million blood transfusions in Pakistan are not screened for HIV. While screening in the public sector has made progress, private blood banks lag far behind with little enforcement of screening regulations, says a report compiled by the United Nations Integrated Regional Information Network.

The report, quoting Birjees Mazhar Qazi, national coordinator for blood transfusions at the National Institute of Health, Islamabad, states that country-wide there are some 170 blood banks in the public sector and 450 in the private sector.

“These facilities are generally unsatisfactory, with extremes ranging from poor, fragmented services to state-of-the-art facilities meeting international standards,” Mr Qazi says and adds that in the government-run blood banks, the situation is much better.

It is estimated that more than 90 per cent of blood bags in the public sector are screened for HIV and hepatitis B and C. There are around 100 blood banks in Karachi, but only 20 per cent of them do the necessary screening, thereby becoming channels for the transmission of deadly diseases. In fact, a large proportion of professional blood donors have never been tested for HIV/AIDS, the report adds.

There are half a million untested people nationwide currently selling bloods.

“Those using drugs through intravenous injections pose the highest threat of transmitting HIV infection through blood for transfusions, and they are most likely to sell it,” the report quotes Dr Saleem Azam, president Pakistan Society, an NGO working for rehabilitation of drug addicts.

It is estimated that between 70,000 and 80,000 of the country’s population of 140 million is HIV positive. Official figures are much lower. Towards the end of last year, 1,942 cases of HIV and 231 of full-blown AIDS were reported to the National Aids Control Programme.

While heterosexual transmission accounts for at least 40 per cent of reported cases, exposure to infected blood or blood products accounts for about 19 per cent.

In 1998, the AIDS Surveillance Centre in Karachi conducted a study of professional blood donors and found that one in five were infected with hepatitis C, one in 10 with hepatitis B.—PPI