While voluntary blood donation camps are improving in terms of their adherence to national and global standards are concerned, a major area which continues to remain neglected is that of donor counselling. Most blood banks do not have a trained counsellor to attend the drives and even those who take up the responsibility lack the necessary focus and skill.
Blood donation , be it whole blood donation or platelet donation( plateletpheresis) does not have any gender bias, scientifically. All men and women can donate whole blood if they meet the minimum requirements of weight(45KG) and can donate platelets if they meet the minimum requirement of 55kg body weight. While whole blood donors and platelet donors-male or female need to have a Hemoglobin of 12.5 g/dl, platelet donors need to have atleast 1.5 lakh platelets/uL.
Thalassemia patients often undergo a painful process of blood transfusion followed by chelation and other medications very regularly. If certain factors are in place, Thalassemia can be cured. Usually cord blood transplant or bone marrow transplant is used. For the first time in our country, a mixed therapy was used successfully to save a young life. Here is the article (reference Times of India) Five year old Moinam Pal, an e-beta Thalassemia patient, walked into medical history as first India patient to be cured by mixed stem cell therapy.
A blood donor came up with the question as to what he/she should do if he/she gets to know that he/she has been tested positive for any disease?
A donor may test positive for HIV, Hepatitis –B, Hepatitis-C, Syphils or Malaria. Here, Dr Shivram C, Consultant & Chief Manipal Hospital Transfusion Services answers the question from a perspective of a donor who tests reactive (positive) for Hepatitis B infection (HBsAg-Reactive).
Blood donated by an individual for his or her exclusive use at a later stage is referred to as an autologous or self-donation. The primary advantage of autologous donations is simple: your own blood is an exact blood match with no cross matching issues.
The cheers for the regular blood donors is that now they can choose to donate selective components of blood too. Get to know more about the process of donating platelets selectively.
By donating your platelets through platelet apheresis (ay-fer-ee-sis), you give a very special gift of life. Most patients undergoing a treatment for dengue, bone marrow transplant, surgery, chemotherapy, radiation treatment or organ transplant need platelets in order to survive.
As we head into the season where fever and common cold would be an everday part and parcel in homes, we also need to keep a watch on a few aspects just to be sure we are not affected by Dengue Fever. Here is a look at the symptoms and other related aspects of dengue fever.
The principal symptoms of dengue are:
Thalassemia is a medical condition that requires the patient in some cases to undergo many blood trnsfusions. Many children are affected from this condition. The disease is a genetically inherited and is very prevalent in India. The article intends to give the reader a brief overview of Thalassemia
What is Thalassemia?
