News and Updates for December 2014
Rakta Kranti
December was a busy month in anticipation of the winter shortage. In all 12 blood donation drives were organized in December collecting 1223 units or blood. Let’s have a look at each camp.
December was a busy month in anticipation of the winter shortage. In all 12 blood donation drives were organized in December collecting 1223 units or blood. Let’s have a look at each camp.
Despite being an institution of repute and a medical hub in the southern part of Bangalore city, their views towards voluntary blood donation are unfortunate.
It was around July last year when we decided to put laziness behind and initiate the Sunday get-together for Thalassemia. There was a situation where several parents wanted to meet us and have discussions about various issues faced by their children.
When Sankalp got it's first request for platelet apheresis, little was known and understood about the procedure. We got the volunteers to donate platelets first and then gradually made progress towards educating the regular blood donors as well as building the country's first voluntary platelet database.
In the month of November 2014 Sankalp India Foundation organised 11 blood donation camps where 976 individuals came forward to donate blood and 775 units of blood were collected. The month of November traditionally has several large blood donation camps in the city.
NACO claims 80% voluntary blood donation already and aims at achieving 85% in 2014-15. Unfortunately, right under the government's nose, at an institution which government wants the nation to look up-to and learn from - the message of voluntary blood donations seems to have no takers.
Sankalp India Foundation has an Emergency Team which works to ensure that people who do not find blood from the blood banks are helped. The team works on corner cases of blood transfusion medicine and extremely rare blood group requests. The team has been handling BBG requests for last 6 years.
Although several stories questioning if justice had been done to the victims of the worst industrial disaster in Bhopal on 3rd Dec 1984 keep coming up, it is unclear if people reporting these understand the real problems. Perhaps there is no accurate numbers on the magnitude of damage. Different sources quote different figures.
At Sankalp India Foundation, We firmly believe that each child must be given an option for complete cure irrespective of their financial status. The HLA test is the first step which determines whether the sibling can be a matched donor to the child suffering from thalassemia. The cost of HLA typing in India is around Rs.
The other day I had visitors who had come to one of our day care facilities. For last few years the children - siblings - both thalassemia majors - were being treated at a relatively resource crunched facility. Chelation was barely given and transfusions were given only when they could not be avoided further.
Thalassemia management offers a unique opportunity for measuring the quality of blood transfusion services. Children suffering from thalassemia who are on chronic transfusion therapy generally come back to the same centre for treatment and management. This enable insights into blood transfusion medicine which otherwise may be very difficult to get.
The book of Thalassemia International Federation’s guidelines on the management of transfusion dependant thalassemia is an essential resource for anyone involved in care giving for patients suffering from thalassemia.