Published On : Wed, Oct 19th, 2016

National Blood Donation Month celebrated by ISBTI, IFSB & Lifeline Blood Bank

Advertisement

national-blood-donation-month

 

Nagpur: National Blood Donation Month-October was jointly celebrated by Indian Society of Blood Transfusion and Immuno-haematology (ISBTI), Indian Foundation for Safe Blood, Bangalore (IFSB) & Lifeline Blood Bank, Nagpur by organizing a felicitation programme of blood donors & camp organizers at Vasantrao Deshpande Hall on Saturday, October 15, 2016 at 5.30 PM.

At the outset, Viraj Warbhe gave welcome address and highlighted the aims & objectives of this programme. Pravin Sathavane, Director, Public Relations, Lifeline Blood Bank thanked all the blood donors & organizers for their vital role in saving life of thousands of people.

Dr Vanashree Warbhe, Director-Administration of Lifeline Blood Bank updated the audience about the various charitable activities being undertaken by the trust including blood services to Sickle, Thalassemia children and poor & needy patients. She thanked all the blood donors & camp organizers and gave entire credit of trust activities & told that without their help it would not have been possible to save the lives of thousands of people. She appreciated their contribution in the service of humanity.

Dr Raina, Secretary General, ISBTI was the Chief Guest for the Program. He said that, the movement of blood donation needs to be spread in our country in view of its shortage. Blood donation gives the joy of giving to the donor & spreads the brotherhood in society. He stressed upon the need of Repeat Regular Voluntary Blood Donors to come forward to enhance the Blood Safety.

Sangeeth Kini from IFSB, Bangalore highlighted various aspects of blood risks & safety. In India there is high prevalence (1.5-2.5%) of infections like HIV-AIDS, Hepatitis-B & Hepatitis-C which can be transmitted from blood donor to the patients through blood. Even though each & every collected blood unit is carefully tested against in blood banks by Government approved Kits & Methods like ELISA, the possibility of infections cannot be ruled out because of Window Period (Initial phase of infection of about 1-9 months) and Occult Infection Period (Later phase of chronic, low grade infection) during which the ELISA test is negative but the infection can be passed through blood.

He said that such possibility in India is about 1 in 500-900 transfusions and stressed the need of mandating NAT-Tested Blood (Nucleic Acid Test) in India, which is already the basic standard in blood safety in the world. He stressed upon the use of ID-NAT (Individual Donor – NAT) which tests each collected blood sample separately and is safer than MP-NAT (Mini Pool – NAT) which mixes six collected blood samples together & does one NAT test for these six blood units. MP-NAT can miss about 60-70% of infections which can be detected by the use of ID-NAT screening. ID-NAT is more so required in India because of high prevalence of infections in general population.

Dr Harish Warbhe, Vice President of ISBTI, Maharashtra Chapter said that every blood unit is potentially associated with some risk of transfusion reaction or infection and to minimize these risks, we need to use high quality blood components with some special tests & processes on collected blood unit apart from those minimum required & mandated by law.

He further said the prizing guidelines of National Blood Transfusion Council (NBTC) which has specified the specific charges against various tests & processes required to enhance the blood safety. The blood bank is allowed to charge as per the various specialized tests & processes used in that blood bank to enhance the blood safety & improve the quality standards. And, no blood bank can charge more than that is prescribed in the said guidelines.

Guest of honor, Dr Milind Mane appreciated the contribution of blood donors & camp organizers in saving life of our patients.
Krishna Khopde, chairperson of the programme stressed upon the need of blood revolution in our country. He said that the message of need of voluntary blood donation must reach the society and appreciated the team of Lifeline Blood Bank along with ISBTI & IFSB for holding this very important program for the awareness of Repeat Regular Voluntary Blood Donation & Blood Safety.

Dr Himandri Warbhe thanked the audience & program concluded with national anthem & was followed by Kojagiri Milan.