Story of Jeevan

Recent article from Rediff.com on setting up of Jeevan Blood Bank and Jeevan Cord Blood Bank to enable access to safe blood and cord blood derived stem cells for children with blood cancers and Thalassemia:

http://www.rediff.com/business/slide-show/slide-show-1-success-story-of-a-doctor-who-turned-an-entrepreneur/20120328.htm

ELISA vs Nucleic Acid testing

ELISA kits inaccurate, NAT needed, say blood bank officials – Indian Express 1 Sep 2010

20 children get HIV, Hepatitis due to infected transfusion – THE HINDU 12 July 2010

There has been a spurt of reports in the media in recent times suggesting Nucleic Acid Testing (NAT) would have prevented these incidences of transfusion associated infections and ELISA testing in ineffective.

I agree with all that the onus of providing safe blood rests on the blood centres. What I do not agree is the rumour spread by the media about ELISA and some “professionals” working in blood transfusion services falling prey to the well-orchestrated campaign of the manufactures and distributors of NAT.

The reasons for these reported incidents could be many fold – inappropriate selection of blood donors (most critical link in blood safety), use of ELISA kits of substandard quality, inappropriate storage and inadequate training in performing the tests. All these need to be looked into and appropriate corrective / preventive measures instituted.

ELISA is a Time-tested Technology and in fact in recent times the fourth generation tests have been released for use in blood centres.These tests for HIV, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C are as clinically sensitive as NAT and can easily be automated and performed on the machines already available in the blood centres of India. Only ignorant "professionals" and those with "other" intentions can talk of NAT being made mandatory or ELISA is bad technology, at the cost of taxpayer's money.

I do hope sense prevails upon these people to understand that even if one spends 10% of the cost of NAT testing in promoting voluntary blood donation and encouraging such donors to donate blood regularly, this by itself will certainly help India achieve the desired highest level of blood safety.

14th June is the World Blood Donor Day.

A special day to say thanks to all those who have helped several people live - like this young boy who is now in college.

May your tribe increase!

Please donate without waiting for a call!

Cheers

Srinivasan

Why Blood Banks Charge for Donated Blood?

Yesterday I was having a cup of tea with a group of people who had come to discuss some projects their organsiation wants to do in the domain of blood donation. During the conversation one of them mentioned about “blood banks make money out of blood donation”- statement I have heard several hundred times in 15 years.

This triggered me in to writing this piece.

Donated blood cannot be transfused to any patient as is where condition. Ask yourself whether you would like to receive. It can happen only in the domain of “wood” Kolly, Bolly, Tolly….

Let's look into the activities that happen to make available safe blood and blood components to patients:

• Social marketing to create awareness on voluntary blood donation and get the potential donor to donate blood. One out of 30 calls succeed.
• Collection of donated blood into a sterile single use disposable bag (cost varies for single, double, triple bags and the quality of the bags)
• Post Donation care - refreshments, donor certificate, donor card
• Donor blood grouping
• Separation of Blood into components
• Storage of the blood and blood components at appropriate temperatures - till given to patient or discarded for various reasons.
• Testing the donated blood to ensure safety - this might vary from blood bank to blood bank based on the number of tests and the quality of testing.
• Compatible testing to identify the correct unit for transfusion for a given patient.
• Packing and release of the identified unit to the hospital
• Cost involved in safe disposal of waste generated (bio-medical waste disposable)
• Employee cost (salary).
• Cost of purchase and maintenance of expensive equipments.
• Rent, electricity, and cost of diesel to run the generator

It costs an average of Rs. 1500 to process single blood donation.

The In the absence of any government support, blood banks have to recover these expenses either from the patients who can afford to reimburse them or by way of donations from the society it supports. Government blood banks also spend money to process blood and the same comes from the taxpayer’s money!

Jeevan is fortunate to have supporters in the community. Jeevan meets the blood needs of several hundred patients every year through the “Make Blood Free” programme with public support. Beneficiaries are children with Thalassemia (need 2 blood transfusions a month), Patients of Tanker Foundation (Dialysis), Adyar Cancer Institute, Govt. Children’s Hospital and many others. Major donors to this programme are Rotary Club of Madras Metro and Cognizant Foundation.

You can also support Make Blood Free. Join the mission at www.jeevan.org

Till next time…

Srinivasan