UDBT pushes for a green signal

…These are only representative, true examples of several lives being saved in distant remote places by giving timely blood transfusions by local surgeons, gynaecologists or physicians working in far away places – nearly 100 kilometres further from their district places where there are no blood banks.

These doctors take the blood of relatives or friends of the patient, do proper blood grouping, cross-matching and all the tests on the donor’s blood to ensure that it does not test positive for diseases like AIDS, Hepatitis B (Jaundice), sexually transmitted diseases like Syphilis and malaria and then take the donor’s blood in a sterile bag or bottle containing an anticoagulant solution and immediately transfuse the blood to that patient, without keeping it in the refrigerator even for a minute.

However, the UDBT or the Village Blood Transfusion Centres (VBTC) are being considered illegal by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorities with blood collection bags/bottles no longer being made officially available to the doctors practising UDBT. The FDA has also issued strict instructions to chemists not to supply these bags/bottles to anybody except authorised blood banks.

And up in arms over this move are a group of socially conscious doctors from various health organisations including Dr N H Antia, director, Foundation for Research in Community Health, Dr S V Gore, managing trustee, Sevadham Trust, Padmakar Pandit, president, National Medicos Organisation, Dr R R Tongaonkar, vice-president, Association of Rural Surgeons of India, Dr N S Deodhar, Dr Sanjay Gupte, chairman, Medico-Legal-Ethical Committee-Federation of Obstetrics and Gynaecological Societies of India, Dr Anant Phadke, convenor, health committee – Lok Vidnyan Sanghatana and Dr Ashok Kale.

A delegation of these doctors met State Health Minister Daulatrao Aher and urged his personal intervention in favour of the UDBT which is the only solution of providing blood during a reasonable time-span and at an affordable cost. Tongaonkar who has worked in Dondaicha, Dhule district for over 30 years has even released a booklet to create mass awareness of the need for UDBT in rural areas. Tongoankar who was in Pune recently said if a patient needs blood, it took nearly more than 24 hours to get a bottle from a blood bank at Dhule!

Moreover in blood banks there is wastage of blood by not doing tests for AIDS, Hepatitis B and others on donor blood before collecting Blood. In blood banks, blood is collected first and then the tests are done on the collected blood bottles and if they are found positive for any of these diseases, the blood bottles are thrown away, Tongoankar pointed out urging that the only solution to meet the need of blood in periphery areas in emergency situations was Village Blood Transfusion Centres where Unbanked Directed Blood Transfusion can be done.