City blood banks run out of stock
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With hardly any blood donation camps held in educational institutions due to the ongoing examinations season, both the state-run Institute of Preventive Medicine (Central Blood Bank) and private blood banks have reported shortages. Barring common blood types such as B-positive and O-positive, the stocks of A-negative and AB-negative and fresh frozen plasma for negative blood types A, B, AB, O are not available at these blood banks.
Besides the lack of donation camps ever held for students, bulk supplies to government hospitals have also shown the shortages, officials said. An employee at Chiranjeevi Blood Bank, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad, said: “Neither A-negative nor AB-negative blood is available. We hardly find donors with these blood types. The shortage becomes more acute in summer.”
The situation at IPM, which can store about 10,000 units of blood, is grim, too. An analyst at the blood bank said the blood, barring B-positive and O-positive, had not been not available over the past few days. “Fresh plasma, too, is unavailable for most blood groups,” the analyst pointed out.
Dr P. Manjari, deputy director of the blood bank at IPM, explained: “No blood donation camp was held last month, since the exams are on. While we get walking donors, that is not sufficient given the demand. Only 5 per cent of donors have negative or rare blood types.” Moreover, she said, the IPM also supplied 50 to 100 units of blood to government hospitals, especially maternity and children hospitals, every day. She added: “So though we maintain a buffer stock of 80-100 units, the demand always surpasses supply.”
However, Dr Manjari stated, with a couple of big blood donation camps expected to come up this week and some IT companies also offering donation by their staff, the shortage would come down in the near future.
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