By Anubha Taneja-Mukherjee & Shivangi Amrit,
Immediately right after the government announced in May 2021 that persons above 18 years can obtain the COVID-19 vaccine, the National Blood Transfusion Council (NBTC) issued an order stating that a individual can’t donate blood for two weeks post-vaccination. One would wonder as to why the subject of blood donation assumed such significance so as to warrant corrections, explanations, and so on? Here is a truth which is not alien to everyone – blood services hold prime value for urgent or elective surgical interventions and patients with uncommon genetic blood problems such as thalassemia. As per the World Health Organisation, a nation should really have blood units equal to a % of its population and India did not meet this parameter even prior to the pandemic. As we witness COVID-19 trampling the healthcare systems worldwide, just like lots of other sectors, blood blanks and blood transfusion services are also facing unforeseen challenges. Unfortunately even though, what is alien to most is the truth that close to 5 lakhs patients of thalassemics who need blood transfusion each fifteen days have been most badly hit by the shortage of blood for the duration of Covid-19.
In the last 14 months, there has been a steep decline in the collection of blood units and the motives for this are not mysterious. Inability to travel for blood donation, worry of contracting the virus though going to blood collection camps or crowded hospitals and new suggestions to stop vaccinated adults from donating blood, have led to acute blood shortages in the nation.
Young persons in the age group of 19-44 years types majority of blood donors in India. Considering that vaccination plays a vital function in the fight against COVID-19, the query that arises is – what can be accomplished now? Awareness campaigns should really focus on educating young volunteers to donate blood either prior to obtaining the vaccine, or at least 14 days right after their 1st or the second dose. Moreover, wholesome, and young donors should really volunteer to donate blood, as patients who undergo emergency surgeries and endure from thalassemia are in dire require of blood provide.
As per reports, an additional trouble that has resulted from low turnout at blood donation camps is of ‘blood replacement’ that does not fall below the suggestions of National Blood Transfusion Council (NBTC). In blood replacement, the recipient is asked to bring a pal or a family member to donate or replace the blood utilized in a transfusion. Due to inadequate screening facilities in the nation, replacement blood can lead to infections like HCV, HIV and transfusion-transmitted infection that can lead to death. How has the circumstance worsened for the duration of the pandemic? Jharkhand is recording deaths attributed to blood shortage, and in Bhatinda, 4 thalassemia patients tested positive for HIV. A father of 5-year-old thalassemic boy cycled 400 km in Jharkhand for blood transfusion of his kid as COVID-19 had the left nearby blood bank dry.
Zooming in on the Bigger Picture
When suffering from thalassemia, a individual can have much less haemoglobin in the body than necessary. The disorder can trigger anaemia, leaving the individual fatigued. Patients with mild thalassemia need no therapy. However, when one suffers from more extreme types, frequent blood transfusions turn into vital. The disorder originated from the Mediterranean nations, wherein invaders came from numerous components of the world and married inside their communities, major to the spread of illness drastically. That is when it sooner or later led to India becoming the thalassemia capital of the world. India accounts for nearly 10 % of the total world incidence of the disorder. As per estimates, nearly two million persons endure from thalassemia, and 10,000 new-borns fall prey to it each year. These patients need blood transfusions each 15 to 20 days. The statistics revealed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare are disturbing. According to them, India has a requirement of 12 million units of blood and only 11 million are collected each year. In the absence of robust screenings and preventive overall health checks, thalassemia minor patients are passing on the disorder to their children.
Therefore, the nation requires a national policy on the disorder to develop awareness amongst the masses about diagnosis and therapy, along with cascading techniques to stop its spread. Under the suggestions of National Health Mission (NHM), Pre-marital and pre-conception screening should really be made a mandatory public overall health initiative. Moreover, to make sure a frequent provide of blood, a concerted work is essential. Under the NHM, state governments should really run campaigns on radio and all social media platforms to educate persons and compel hospitals to organise blood donation camps, alternatively of asking patients to arrange donors each time a transfusion is necessary. Additionally, there is a require to make sure inter-city travel of patients, donors and cars carrying blood even when borders are sealed due to the lockdown.
In India, management and care for thalassemia patients is not standardised. Even even though the nation has therapy of thalassemics mandated below the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPWD) Act 2016, it has merely been on papers with out any implementation by the states. The blood banks may well or may well not adhere to the suggestions of NBTC right after they are offered the licenses to operate below the Drugs and Cosmetic Act. Therefore, it is vital for the nation to have one authority to regulate blood transfusion services. For therapy, in addition to bone marrow transplant, researchers should really discover new therapies to lower the frequency of blood transfusion. Everything stated, the government should really contain patients in the policy generating and focus on stopping and managing the therapy of thalassemia patients.
(The authors are Legal Professionals & Members of Thalassemia Patients Advocacy Group. Views expressed are individual and do not reflect the official position or policy of the TheSpuzz Online.)