Maharashtra Govt to run Hepatitis C check on donor blood

This assumes significance in the wake of a statement by Dr M V Mangliani, chief of Paediatric Haematology and Oncology at LTMG hospital that a random test conducted recently showed that 43 among 124 thalassaemic patients tested positive for Hepatitis C. With Mumbai having over 500 thalassaemic children undergoing transfusions once every three weeks and more than 800 births showing up these disorders every year, the government’s decision couldnot have come at a better time.

Hepatitis C is caused by a virus which attacks the liver of patients. There are over 10 million such carriers in India today. According to Dr Mangliani, 25 per cent of these carriers develop chronic symptoms while just 1-2 per cent finally end up with hepatoma, the cancer of the liver. This was one of the reasons why the central government decided not to make testing blood for the virus mandatory.

The test for Hepatitis C virus costs Rs 100 per bottle of blood. With the prevalance rate of just one positive case in 400 bottles, the tests prove uneconomical, escecially as the disorder manifests itself after an incubation period of over 10 years.

But the figures provided by Dr Mangliani put a question mark over the government’s claims on the prevalance of the disorder. “If official figures are correct, then we would not have seen this phenomenon,” said Dr N B Jaju, head of the blood bank at St George hospital, which services nearly 100 thalassaemic patients. In fact, hehas decided to test all patients under his care within the first week of January. The equipment for testing blood, which costs Rs 10,000 for 96 tests, has been obtained by the hospital through donations.

Expressing surprise at the figures qouted by Dr Mangliani, Patil said high risk groups – mainly thalassaemics, haemophilics, those suffering from platlet disorders and leukaemia patients – will be given vaccinations to prevent the disease.

The cost of treatment for the disorder is exorbitant, because the six-month course will burden the patient with a bill of Rs 80,000 for the drugs alone. For those patients who go in for regular blood transfusions, this could be a death-blow. “Moreover, even after we spend money on the treatment, what guarantee is there that the next bottle of blood being given to my child will be free from the virus if you don’t test it?” asked a thallasaemic parent Anil Shah at the inaugural conference of the Mumbai Thalassaemic Society held in the city recently. It is a questionthat the government plans to answer in all seriousness, effectively.