Around 1.2 million of the total 3.2 million bags of blood collected every year in Pakistan are being used to save mothers’ life during deliveries, said renowned Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) consultant haematologist Dr Bushra Moiz in an exclusive interview with Pakistan Today ahead of World Blood Donor Day to be observed Tuesday (today).
Moiz said that during deliveries, most mothers lose a lot of blood due to unskilled midwives in the rural areas of the country where majority of the population resides.
Quoting the official data of the World Health Organisation, she said that not only Pakistan alone, but almost every developing country in South Asia is facing a similar situation.
She said that followed by pregnant related issues, children top the list of those who require blood the most, with 14 percent of the total collected blood being used for patients of thalassaemia and other diseases; whereas 19 percent is used for general medical issues, 18 percent for trauma related issues and 12 percent in surgeries.
“In Pakistan, 3.2 million bags of blood are being collected every year, but despite that, we have a shortfall of 40 percent of the total collected blood, for which we must promote more blood donations to save more lives,” she added.
The theme for World Blood Donor Day 2011 is ‘More blood, more life’ to encourage more volunteers for this noble cause. The World Blood Donor Day is an international event that is observed on June 14 every year to raise awareness regarding the need of safe blood transfusion and blood products and to thank unpaid blood donors for their life-saving gifts of blood.
Moiz said that the theme of the World Blood Donor Day reinforces the urgent need for more people across the world to become life-savers by volunteering to donate blood regularly.
She said that Pakistan faces several challenges that hinder safe blood transfusion and the barriers include lack of national legislation.
“We don’t have any national regulation for safe blood transfusion and we are in dire need of such a law,” she added.
Moiz said that blood banking in Pakistan is also hindered by fragmented blood services, interrupted supply of reagent kits, high prevalence of hepatitis B and C, non-standardisation in serological testing techniques and, above all, absent motivation for voluntary blood donation. “The challenges can be turned into opportunities by appropriate actions,” she added.
Quoting data of international health organisations, she said that situated in South Asia, Pakistan is home to 180 million people with an estimated one percent of the population donating blood, but the annual requirement of Pakistan is estimated to be 3.2 million units with 40 deficit in supply.
“Most of the blood banks are hospital-based with no proper system of motivation for voluntary blood donors. They include 170 public and 450 private blood banks. The Sindh Blood Transfusion Authority of Pakistan started the registration process of transfusion services in 1997 and registered 146 banks for their standards, whereas 126 were closed as they were sub-optimally managed,” she added.
She also said that there is a high incidence of viral hepatitis in general population that is estimated to be three-four percent, though the incidence of HIV is still low in general public. She demanded the government to constitute a central authority for controlling blood banks and to force them to update the data of all the blood transfusions.
