Vice Chancellor, Dow Medical University Professor Dr Masood Hameed Khan has stressed the need to properly enforce 'Safe Blood Transfusion Laws' to cease scattered, unscreened and unorganised blood banks and to control spread of deadly diseases.
He was speaking at the inauguration of a two-day 1st international symposium on "Transfusion Medicine-Blood Banking: It's in our blood," organised by Healthcare Academy For Knowledge (HCAK), a non-profit organisation based in the United States.
Dr Masood said the safe blood transfusion bill recently passed by Sindh Assembly would help register such transfusions as many blood banks in private sector are not registered.
However, he said that with the passage of time the awareness about safe blood has increased among masses in the country.
The VC recalled that before the 70s blood donation was in total control of professional donors, who used to sell blood for money and informed the gathering that in 1976 some students of Dow Medical College (DMC) formed 'Patients Welfare Association' (PWA) at Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK) to encourage family blood donation trends.
At the initial stage, people considered PWA as also one of the associations of professional blood donors, but as time passed, it introduced a culture of safe blood transfusion in the country.
Since then non-professional blood donations have been promoted in the country and now people prefer family donations instead of buying blood from professional donors, added Professor Masood.
He emphasised that all the blood banks should be properly registered and they should supply safe blood to patients to avoid spread of deadly diseases like Hepatitis B, C and HIV /AIDS.
Professor Masood appreciated the efforts of the organisers of the symposium and said that it would help increase awareness about safe blood transfusion.
The keynote speaker Dr James T. Perkins of American Board of Pathologists said that in United States, blood banking is highly regulated. "We want to see Pakistani blood banks also at the same level," he added.
He further said that the government regulations in this regard are very essential, but it is lacking here in Pakistan.
The main job of transfusion medicine practitioners is to assist the medical doctors in treatment of patients. Delivery of safe blood transfusion gives tremendous results, he said, adding that "It has improved the conditions of trauma patients, helped in care of cancer patients particularly the children suffering from leukemia (blood cancer)."
Dr Perkins also gave a slide presentation on "23 years of professional experience in Transfusion Medicine."
Dr Mohammad Ali Pothiawala, a specialist in Blood Banking and Technical Director at University of Chicago Hospitals, said that American experts including him were here to share their experiences with their Pakistani counterparts.
"We want to inform our colleagues in Pakistan about our experiments and mistakes, so that they cannot repeat them here," he said, adding that safe blood transfusion can save many lives.
Professor Essa Abdullah, senior pathologist said most of the private blood banks in the country are not providing safe blood to the patients.
He expressed concern over the lack of government regulations and said that everyone can easily open a blood bank without any check and balance.
A few private blood banks are doing a good job in collection of blood and they have adopted strict checks and balances for safe blood transfusion, he added.
Dr Syed Abdul Mujeeb while talking to newsmen said the total annual requirement of blood in Pakistan is 1.5 million units/bags, however he said out of this about 5 to 7 percent blood is not safe and infected with Hepatitis B, C or HIV/AIDS.
"We should take serious measures to save these 5,000 to 7,000 patients, who receive unsafe blood every year," he pointed out. Dr Mujeeb said many private blood banks do not have proper facilities to store blood and most of blood goes waste because of improper storage.
Earlier in his welcome remarks, the Chief Executive of HCAK and chief organiser of the symposium, Syed Asif Azeem said the blood-banking work in the country is far more difficult than in the United States.
The symposium would help the Pakistani blood bank operators to assess their current needs, leadership skills and the culture of their organisations. "It will provide a clear roadmap for building trust, produce relationships with your staff members in an often turbulent and stressful environment," he added.
Describing about his organisation, he said, "It is devoted to the sole purpose of disseminating the advancements in the field of transfusion medicine (blood bank) to people around the world."
Its purpose is to assist the hospitals and blood banks of Asia to abreast with the current transfusion practices, he added.
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