No authority to monitor blood banks

Due to the devolution of National Blood Transfusion Programme to the provinces, there is no authority or legal system in the capital city of Islamabad and suburban areas to monitor or regulate unregistered and registered blood banks, endangering the citizens’ lives.
Owing to apathy on the part of the authorities concerned, over 2,385 unregistered blood banks in Pakistan are operating without any check whereas only 130 are registered while 40 percent blood is being transfused without screening, thus spreading deadly diseases like HIV and hepatitis B & C.
While talking to Pakistan Today, Dr Quaid Saeed Akhunzada, national programme officer, HIV/AIDS, WHO, said, “The blood transfusion system in Pakistan is fragmented and one who wants to open a blood bank can easily do so without maintaining any standards as after the devolution of the national programme there is no federal programme to set national standards. Islamabad, the capital city of Pakistan, does not have any legal system or authority to monitor and keep a check on the unregistered blood banks, but the World Health Organisation (WHO) set up provincial blood transfusion authorities three years ago and we are operating through them after the devolution of national programme.”
He said the provinces had their policies, laws and acts, but they were not being implemented. “Over 40 percent blood transfusion is done without screening, endangering the lives of thousands of people who need blood for life saving, but the government is showing no interest in addressing the problem,” he noted.
Akhunzada said they had asked the Cabinet Division through a letter to set up a national blood transfusion authority to formulate unified standards and policies for the whole country, but no positive or negative reply had been sent to them as yet.
While talking about their own programme, he said they had spent 7.8 million dollars for the purchase of test kits for blood screening for the public sector as well as some private sector hospitals for the next two years.
The HIV/AIDS national programme officer revealed that in next two months, the WHO would award a contract to a private lab to check the performance of test kits available in the market and confirm whether they were capable of detecting the disease in blood or not.
“There is practically no system to monitor and run blood banks in the country. Though the government has initiated regulatory laws, they are not being implemented in letter and spirit. On the other hand, there is a lack of national standards and protocols that are needed to run blood transfusion services in an efficient manner,” he lamented.
According to a survey conducted by the WHO worldwide, there are 2,515 blood banks in Pakistan of which 170 are in the public sector, 15 under NGOs and 2,330 under commercial organisations.
Dr Quaid said that all public sector blood banks were required to report screening of blood bags for three diseases – HIV, hepatitis B and C – while the WHO was working on a project which would ensure screening for at least five diseases, including malaria and syphilis.
He explained that the WHO was working worldwide to support the national and provisional blood transfusion programmes by providing them with technical support to build systems that could ensure availability of quality blood for those in need of it.