On World Blood Donor Day, Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) today said that donated blood in Kashmir is not safe for transfusion.
With outmoded screening tests being done on donated blood, President DAK Dr Nisar ul Hassan in a statement said that blood banks in the valley put patients at risk of life-threatening infections.
Blood banks screen blood and blood products for Hepatitis B, C and HIV viruses by conventional enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test that does not detect very early stages of infection in donated blood.
These viruses have a “window period” of weeks to months during which the virus does not show up in the conventional test.
During this period any donated blood will transmit the infection to the recipient.
According to various studies, one in every 500 units of blood collected from a donor can easily be missed by ELISA test even if it is infected.
In order to ensure safe blood, many countries have switched from ELISA to Nucleic Acid Test (NAT) technology for screening of donated blood.
NAT detects viruses even in the window period and its introduction has eliminated the transmission of deadly viruses by blood transfusion.
While several states in India have adopted NAT to screen blood, blood banks in Kashmir continue to use traditional methods thus jeopardising the safety of blood.
The infected blood is responsible for colossal hepatitis epidemic in the valley.
“Although blood transfusion is life-saving, unsafe blood transfusion is life-threatening”.