“Including a huge city like Karachi, there are only 37 government blood banks in 23 districts of Sindh. However, to cope with the demands of the province, the Sindh Health Department has registered 77 private blood banks so far and local non-governmental organisations are running 34 of them,” said Safe Blood Transfusion Authority Provincial Programme Manager Dr Zahid Hasan Ansari. Ansari was addressing a capacity building seminar titled ‘Blood Safety’, which was arranged by the Husaini Blood Bank in collaboration with the Association of Health Journalists Pakistan, the National Blood Transfusion Services Pakistan (NBTSP), the World Health Organisation and the Sindh Blood Transfusion Authority, ahead of the World Blood Donor Day to be observed on June 14.
Ansari said that there were around 1,000 unregistered blood banks across the province a few years ago and they were violating the basic blood transfusion laws. “In the recent years, we have engaged in a crackdown, due to which many of them have been shut down. Thirty two applications are pending for registration right now,” he added. NBTSP Islamabad head Dr Hassan Abbas Zaheer said that to meet the country’s needs, 13 centralised blood banks would be established in Karachi, Sukkur, Nawabshah and Jamshoro, as well as in other provinces. “A capacity of 50,000 bags at Karachi’s blood banks and of 20,000 at blood banks in other cities of the province will be ensured. The government of Germany will provide 15 million euros for this project,” Zaheer said.
He said that besides establishing new blood banks, the existing ones in various cities across Pakistan would be restored and upgraded under the same project. Renowned haematologist Dr Saeed Ahmed said that in almost 90 percent of the cases, patients are transfused blood in its entirety, instead of transfusing specific component of the blood. “This practice, which is not recommended worldwide, can lead to further complications,” he added. He said, “If we transfuse specific components of the blood, we can save more lives. Besides, donating blood at least once a year can also save countless humans.” The supposition that donating blood could weaken the donor is nothing more than a misconception, he added.
Ahmed said, “A human body has 67 milligrammes of blood per kilogramme of weight and if a person loses up to 13 percent of blood, nothing will happen to him. However, for a bag of blood, we need only 6 percent. Therefore, everyone must donate a bag of blood at least once a year.” Special Health Secretary Dr Suresh Kumar admitted that the Health Department is not focusing on safe blood transfusion at government hospitals. “We had no idea that transfusing blood in its entirety could harm a person’s life. I request the experts to submit their proposals as regards how the government can adopt safe blood transfusion at State-run hospitals of the province so we could adopt safer methods,” he added. Additional Health Secretary Dr Khalid Shaikh, Hussaini Blood Bank’s Dr Sarfaraz Jafri and Karachi Union of Journalists General Secretary Hassan Abbas also spoke on the occasion.
