Blood facts of India
Blood is an important component in modern medicine. Its used to treat cancer patients, pregnant women and the list goes on. Blood donation is a noble act that can save lives. I myself personally witnessed how blood donated by close family member saved my mom’s life. Its important to understand how we manage that life saving fluid (blood) in our society. Like all the countries in the world, India has several flaws. In this article, I am gonna highlight problems in the blood donation system in India.
It is illegal to sell blood or pay donors in India. But there is a huge illicit trade market for blood.
Most of the blood donors in India are friends and family of the recipient. Technically they are called replacement donors.
A blood donation system that heavily relies on replacement/family donors won’t meet the needs of people. As a result Indian healthcare system constantly have blood shortage
Migrant workers are the most disadvantaged in this system. Its hard for them to find family and friends for blood donation during emergency
People in need of blood use WhatsApp, Facebook and other social media as their medium to find donor. Its dangerous to rely on social media for critical need. It should be the responsibility of the government.
Chronic shortage of blood gave rise to monstrous money thirsty racketeers who run illegal blood supply network. There is one more horrible consequence to this, read the next fact
Illegal blood brokers more likely supply unscreened/medically ineligible donor. As a result the recipient will get disease from transfused blood. It is called Transfusion Transmitted Infections (TTI’s).
To give a perspective a person transfused with blood in US have 0.01 percent chance of getting HIV infection. Whereas in India its 3000 times higher. Here is the source for that data.
Even with all the short comings and incompetence from the government. Healthcare workers and blood donors are saving lives in India. Big kudos to them
With all the medical advancements and technology, its totally possible to create an efficient and effective blood donation system. Lack of such system in India can be attributed to corruption, bureaucracy and incompetence of people in authority. Any sort of excuse would be unacceptable. I am not trying to blame government for everything. Even though people are ready to donate blood for good cause, we don’t have a system in place to properly make use of it.
Additional Note: I happened to visit the website (link) of government entity that provides guideline for blood donation and transfusion. That website is not secure and they ask for login credentials. It shows how much government values a critical part of the healthcare system.
Sources
[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
[2] http://nbtc.naco.gov.in (Shameful that its not a secure website that asks for login credentials)
