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Patients in a fix as Valley reels under blood crisis
KATHMANDU, JUN 08 -
The Capital is facing a severe blood crisis, depriving a large number of patients of their only lifeline.
The Blood Transfusion Centre (BTC) at Nepal Red Cross Society (NRCS), the sole organisation for blood transfusion, has started turning back people seeking blood empty-handed. Bom Bahadur Rai, from Okhaldhunga, didn’t get ‘O’ positive blood. “My sister’s operation is pending at a hospital due to shortage of blood. The blood bank says it cannot help,” said Rai.
Binod Kewat from Kapilvastu is in need of some units of ‘B’ positive blood for his brother at National Kidney Centre. “I have been told to wait indefinitely,” said Kewat.
BTC statistics show the demand for blood per day is around 300 units whereas collection through donation is less than two-third of the demand.
Given the acute shortage, the Centre has adopted a new strategy to cope with the crisis: only those who can afford to replace the same amount of blood that they are demanding will get blood.
“NRCS cannot but seek substitution, though this has put many patients in trouble,” said Mahendra Bilas Joshi, President of Blood Donors’ Association of Nepal (BLODAN). Health professionals involved in blood banking say that the scarcity is getting worse due to the lack of adequate donation programme and people’s aversion to donating blood. Health centres and hospitals are mushrooming and so are patients, but the number of blood donors has not increased.
According to WHO standards, developing countries should have at least 2 percent of their total population as regular blood donors. But the percentage in Nepal, as of 2009, is just 0.6 (1.26 million donors).
BTC said the problem exacerbated due to the tendency of donors to donate only on holidays. “Aside from holidays, the collection meets only half of the total need,” said Hari Karki, Deputy Director of BTD at NRCS. The problem has become so serious that even those who have donated blood are not getting blood.
However, this won’t stop blood collection, argue donors’ associations and blood bankers. BLODAN has started a week-long campaign to mark World Blood Donor Day and help address the scarcity. The solution, it says, is to encourage youths to donate blood.
Posted on: 2010-06-09 07:20
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