Healthy donors are encouraged to continue donating blood despite pandemic because there are still patients in hospitals in need of blood transfusions and blood components, maintains Dr Lalit Dhantole, Consultant/Head Transfusion Medicine, Fortis Hospitals Mumbai
The Covid-19 pandemic has severely affected lives in all sectors. How have blood banks been impacted?
As far as blood donation is concerned, blood donors are the backbone of effective blood transfusion services. Lockdown due to Covid-19 caused a major disruption to donor recruitment. However, the demands for major surgeries were also decreased as many hospitals were trying to postpone elective surgeries.
Blood donation camps have completely stopped owing to the total lockdown in the country. How did your blood bank overcome this crisis?
Although there was complete lockdown due to Covid-19, the blood donation camps were still allowed by Ministry of Health and State Blood Transfusion Council.
Fortis Hospital,Mulund blood bank conducted at least 4 to 5 blood donation camps during the month of February to April 2020. We collected around 150 units in these camps.
Approximately how many blood donation camps are conducted and how many units of blood are collected annually by Fortis?
The annual blood need of Fortis Hospital,Mulund ranges to about 5000 whole blood units (which gets separated into about 2 to 3 separate components each).
Approximately 50 percent of its demand is fulfilled by blood donation camps and remaining by in-house donations.
The demand-supply gap for blood units persists in many healthcare facilities. How can voluntary donation be encouraged to increase collection?
As per WHO, the demand for blood needs can be fulfilled if at least 1 percent of general population donates blood 2 times in a year, or if more than 20 people per 1000 population donate blood in a year. And if we see the Indian scenario,it’s in range of 5 to 10 people per 1000 population per year i.e., less than 1 percent population donates blood.
The only effective solution to this issue is to promote voluntary blood donations by encouraging replacement donor to get converted to voluntary donors, encouraging first time donors to become repeat voluntary donors. This can be only done if the regulatory authorities educate the general population about blood donation as the major factor which discourages blood donation is the fact that many people have fear and anxiety about blood donation as well as they actually don’t know whether there is need for blood donation or not.
Not many people know that there are various health benefits of donating blood. Could you spell out some of them.
The major benefit from blood donation are:
- Replenish your iron store (forces your body to make new red cells)
- Preserves cardiovascular health
- Prevents Cancer
- Blood donation process itself is a mini health check-up
- Gives the donor a sense of pride
How many units of blood are required in Mumbai and how much is actually collected?
As per 2015 National Blood Transfusion Council statistic, the annual blood collection for Mumbai was around 3 lakh units per annum. It also stated that the average donation per 100 populationwas 2.5 which meets the criteria of blood requirement for Mumbai.
However, there is great disparity in donor collection as for example Palghar (a suburban district of Mumbai) collects only 0.2 units per 100 population which is way less than average of 1 per 100 population collection.
The theme for World Blood Donation Day 2020 is ‘Safe Blood Save Lives’. How can we best raise awareness of the need for safe blood and blood products?
The theme has been specifically selected as we are already undergoing a pandemic. We need to make people aware that although we are under a state of pandemic but the blood requirement is still there for transfusion dependent patients like thalassaemics. This can be done by making people aware about the requirement of blood through various media like newspapers, television, internet etc.
Once blood is collected, what are safety screening processes does the blood go through before being administered to the patient?
Following blood donation the blood unit gets tested for 5 mandatory tests i.e., HIV, Hepatitis B and C, syphilis and malaria (by ELISA and or NAT). The units also undergo testing for blood grouping and an antibody testing. Each unit of red cell component gets crossmatched with patient blood to ensure that the transfusion will be safe for intended patient.
What are the various support services does your blood bank provide to other departments and patients?
The donor actually gets a mini health check-up done when he comes to the blood bank for blood donation, each blood centre would check whether the donor is fit to donate blood wherein his haemoglobin would be tested along with blood pressure. Incase of any issues the donor would be referred to a general physician for follow-up.
Post donation if the donor unit comes reactive for any of the tests (HIV,HBV,HCV, syphilis and malaria), the donor would be recalled and counselled for further follow-up.
The Fortis Mulund Blood Bank had organised blood donation drive on Facebook. How did it work?
Facebook's Blood Donations feature is easy to use and its audience reach is quite high. We were able to reach donors who had previously expressed a willingness to donate. Our efforts on Facebook drove 68 per cent of our voluntary walk-in blood donors. FB drives do recruit donors effectively.
Could you tell us how the various components of blood are put to specific use?
There are on an usual around 4 types of components which can actually be used for various patients
- Red cells: for treating anaemia (low haemoglobin)
- Platelets: for treating thrombocytopenia (low platelet)
- Fresh frozen plasma: for treating coagulation abnormalities
- Lymphocytes: rarely used in normal setup(used in stem cell collections and granulocyte transfusion)
What are some of the challenges you’ll face in the blood bank?
The major challenges which a blood centre is facing during this time are mainly:
- Recruiting blood donors during lockdown
- Arranging blood donation camps
- Recruiting voluntary donors for apheresis during lockdown
Every year, on 14 June, countries around the world celebrate World Blood Donor Day (WBDD). The event serves to raise awareness of the need for safe blood and blood products and to thank blood donors for their life-saving gifts of blood. – World Health Organization
Dr Lalit Dhantole, Consultant/Head Transfusion Medicine, Fortis Hospitals Mulund Mumbai
