From definition to identification to prevention,the Sankalp Patrika, in the last 3 months has carried some extremely important articles describing aspects related to adverse donor reactions. Although all our efforts must be focussed on providing the right ambience for blood donation, there are situations when one or more adverse events do occur.
India is the world’s biggest provider of cheap and affordable medicines to developing world. Of course, most countries don't like that! This debate over global drug pricing one controversial issues between developed While poorer nations maintain they have a moral obligation make cheaper, generic drugs available their masses, pharmaceutical companies claim that profits reap are essential research.
I am Deepak, a student at IIIT Delhi, and I volunteered for Sankalp in December 2017. I came to know about Sankalp through my father, who has worked with Sankalp.
In the last few years tremendous progress has been made to provide reliable and accessible cure from thalassemia. Patients who have a fully matched donors are getting cured with high success rates. Nevertheless, the families who do not have a match continue to wait for the right curative therapy.
Sankalp took birth in a hostel room - bringing to an end a tormenting helplessness which arose when a person lost his life waiting for blood in Bangalore. The young organisation took baby steps in the common spaces of the college premises after the regular college hours. Meetings happened under the trees and sometimes at the tea shops outside the nearby hospital where the incident had occurred that night.
Though Pooja was the first child in the family of Gopal bhai and Jasu ben, Khushi brought more happiness to the family as one can always find a sweet smile on her small face. She was born to the GopalBhai family which was living in a small village called Jamjodhpur in Gujarat.
Blood and Blood products are needed 24 hrs a day, 365 days a year- for emergencies, surgeries, organ transplants, to treat burns, injuries, heart disease, thalassemia, sickle cell anemia and many other medical conditions.
Sankalp India Foundation's programs have often been designed with focus on maximizing benefit to the end recipient. Our Rakta Kranti program however is a little different. Here the focus is the donor the selfless, heroic blood donor. Through the nearly 950 blood donation drives and approximately 83000 units of blood collected, we have focused only on quality in drive execution with maximum compliance to standards.
Sukrana Two years back, in the first few day of March, Sukrana received her bone marrow transplantation at South East Asia Institute of Thalaasemia Jaipur. It was the first transplant supported by Sankalp India Foundation and the beginning of a journey towards cure from the disease.
It was an incredible experience working in the Bone Marrow Transplant unit of People Tree Hospital -Sankalp collaboration. I absolutely fell in love with the meticulous nature and detailed organization in the system. It gives an opportunity to the physicians to remotely monitor patients with able assistance from the nurses.
I would like to mention a few incidents which have made a lasting impression on me.
Last year, we had shared how extremely high ferritin levels are being controlled using a combination of deferasirox and deferoxamine at our centres. "A Novel approach to control very high ferritin levels - our experience - (Volume 6 Issue 8 September 2016 Pg 6-7)" Iron overload is the root cause of the complications associated with thalassemia. Even for those children who find a match and thus have a chance to get cured - bringing down the ferritin levels is the first step towards transplantation preparation.
