Outlook India: Legislation Vital For Safe Blood Access
Legislation Vital In Ensuring Access To Safe Blood
Outlook India, Dr. Sasmit Patra and Sayantani Chatterjee, 24 September 2020
(Image courtesy of Outlook India)
Blood transfusion usage ranges from trauma situations, elaborate medical and surgical interventions, cases of post-partum hemorrhage and in-patients suffering from cancer, anemia, sickle cell disease, hemophilia etc. Hence it is imperative that patients who require transfusion of blood as part of clinical management, have access to safe and adequate blood. However, many developing countries, including India have been struggling to have a robust blood transfusion system where safe blood is readily available.
The WHO Global Database on Blood Safety (GDBS) has projected that 1% of the population of a country need to donate blood to ensure basic necessity is taken care of. By the same calculation India has a shortage of 1.9 million units of blood as per the 2016-17 data.
