FDA move opposed

Besides a complete ban on collecting blood from professional donors, the FDA will ask blood banks to adhere to the standard operating procedures and also to forward draft donors selection cards with all particulars to the directorate for further examination. What has upset the blood banks is the Drugs Controller General asking the bloods banks to do away with rapid and Latex Agglutination LA tests.

A few leading blood bank administrators in Pune are sceptical about banning the rapid tests.

Forbidding the LA tests could be understood, but banning rapid tests would harass the patients as well as the blood banks, since batch tests would be dearer and time consuming during emergencies, they argued.

Member of National Blood Council, Dilip Wani, when contacted corroborated the argument. He saw no logic behind banning the rapid tests, although, he was of the opinion that blood banks may accept a ban of LA tests.

Ban on rapid tests would increase intricacies in making available fresh blood despite availability of the donors, he felt.