Docs urge checks on Hepatitis C

DECEMBER 27: The Mumbai Thallasaemic Society has called for the implementation of the Central directive asking all hospitals to check for Hepatitis C while collecting blood from donors.

Speaking at the inaugural workshop of the Society for parents of thallassaemic patients, Dr M V Manglani who heads the pediatric haematology division at the LTMG hospital, Sion, made the startling observation that 40 out of 120 such patients who come for transfusion at Sion have tested positive for Hepatitis C. 8220;The only source of infection in their case is the blood that has been transfused,8221; she said.

Thallasaemic children have to undergo a blood transfusion once every three weeks. Though most hospitals test the donated blood for HIV, Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C is seldom checked for. Following an uproar in New Delhi last year, the Central government issued a directive to the states calling for all blood banks to check for the virus.