Blood Supply Chain
The
story of how a team of Doctors in Kochi saved the life of 5-year-old Anushka
with a very rare ‘P null' blood type in the midst of the challenging COVID-19 pandemic hit
the headline in July 2020. Belonging to the rare 2% donor category, the transfusion blood supply chain only sparked further interest from me. Amid crisis and disruption, the team managed to find a donor
and bring the blood for transfusion. The fact that India did not have a national
donor registry made the search even more challenging.
The Search for the 'P null' blood group
A
Pan India search along with social media tweets requesting for a donor went
viral. Only two rare donor registries exist in Asia. One unit of frozen blood
was available with the International Rare Blood Donor but the facility to
process frozen RBC does not exist in India. A potential donor in Nashik was
found and his blood was arranged to be collected and transported through
temperature-controlled courier services as all flight services were disrupted.
We all know
that blood cannot be manufactured. Every day, people lose their lives because of a lack of donor blood.
Why is that India is not able to meet
the demand for blood in the stipulated time?
Blood cold chain: Blood Supply and
Wastage
Blood cold chain encompasses the storage and transportation of blood within controlled temperature for transfusion.
Photo credits: Packmaxq.com
It is estimated that about 6 lakh units of blood and blood components are wasted in India every year. They are deemed unfit for transfusion due to bacterial contamination mainly occurring because of faults in storage, testing, or expiration. Some other reasons for wastage being delay to conduct the test on time, fridge failures, over-ordering, broken bags, and seal and other reasons mainly caused due to negligence
We have all seen or been part of Mass or Mega blood donation camps. It is estimated that about 20% of blood thus collected is unfit for transfusion owing to a deficiency in storage facilities. Blood banks should avoid collecting blood units beyond storage capacities and maintain donor registry details to address the gap between demand and supply.
Photo credits: Indiatoday.in
Technology and Law to Reinforce Blood
Chain Synergy
·
Assam has taken steps to reduce the
wastage of the vital life source by launching e-blood bank software that
updates its real-time stock status.
·
Amendments in Drug and Cosmetic Act in
April 2017 allow sharing the excess units of blood between blood banks.
Countries need to have an effective and foolproof blood cold chain to expand and implement safe blood services to cater to universal demand for safe blood transfusion for patients across the globe.
The
way forward is to establish a reliable system for the blood cold chain by ensuring coordination in different levels within the national health care system.
This requires the commitment and support of national health authorities and
sustainable funding. All aspects of the blood cold chain- blood centers, hospital blood banks,
and all institutions handling blood, blood products,
and blood samples should implement quality management. And not to forget, it is
high time a country like India with over 1.33 billion people create a centralized
rare donor registry that documents the donor details in times of emergencies.
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ReplyDeleteA proper and very responsive supply chain is really needed. There are so many rare blood groups which are difficult to trace. Not only that, there are watsapp groups too in circulation for specific blood groups for easier sourcing according to the region.
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