THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: On June 14, World Blood Donor Day is celebrated with by conducting blood donation camps and painting a rosy picture about blood donation whilst celebrating regular blood donors, which represent only a minuscule percentage of the total population. The ground reality is very bleak with insufficient blood donors. There is a huge scarcity for the blood for the most common blood groups such as O positive and A positive.
On a daily basis, 500 units of blood is required in the city. With major hospitals situated in the capital, its daily requirement of blood figures to one-fourth of the total blood requirement in the state. The scarcity of blood can easily be resolved if blood is shared between blood banks and if more people were to donate blood regularly, according to those working on the field.
“The reality on the ground is very different, with the onus on the patient to provide for blood. The bystanders have to often run around in search of donors. O positive and A positive are the most prevalent blood groups. So people often refrain from donating blood saying it is a very common blood group and that donors will be readily available.
But they do not understand that it is also the blood group where the requirement is more,” says Baiju Nellimoodu, organising secretary of All Kerala Blood Donor's Society (KEBS). In April and May alone, there was a huge scarcity of blood in the blood banks of the capital for the blood groups A positive and O positive, he says. “Since most institutions had closed for vacations, we could not conduct as many camps as we used to. And this had its effect,” he says.
The daily requirement of blood in the capital hovers over 500 units and the requirement is more if organ transplantation is underway. With a majority of hospitals concentrated in the capital, the requirement cannot be met if there is not enough voluntary blood donation. “A common blood group also means the requirement arising will also be very huge. This can be addressed only if more people donate blood,” says Ratheesh S, general secretary, KEBS and also one of the founding members of Tejus, a blood donation forum in Technopark.
“The hospitals which required just around five or six camps per month when we created Tejus requires the conduct of four camps per week now,” says Ratheesh who is also the co-ordinator of VSSC blood donation forum. Brijesh P I, co-founder of Tejus also says that despite a fraction of people who continue to donate blood, there is no increase in the number of blood donors, when the blood requirement is high. “The 'Vision 2020' is aimed at making our blood banks self-sufficient by 2020,” he says.
Community blood bank: Need of the hour
“Blood requirements can easily be met if only the blood banks shared the blood. Many of them use it as a money minting business. When you give replacement donors to hospital blood banks, you also pay a fixed sum of money. From one donor they get four blood components which they use to resell to other patients. They can share these components with other blood banks,” says a person, anonymous.
The blood requirement in the city can be met by setting up a community blood bank, where every blood bank is linked and the blood components are shared. “A community blood bank can share information about the blood requirement and share the blood components as well. This ensures that there is no wastage in the blood components. Such a system is in place in Arunachal Pradesh. This can be easily adopted,” says Baiju Nellimoodu, organising secretary, KEBS.