Blood crisis: Donations drop due to pandemic fear, festive season

Hospitals plan to hold blood donation camps to tide over the crisis

With the city seeing a drastic drop in blood donation camps due to the festive season and reluctance among people to donate blood in view of the pandemic, blood banks of major hospitals are facing an acute shortage. Struggling to meet the demand, city hospitals have now decided to organise blood donation camps.

Assuring people that donating blood was safe in the present times, Tata Memorial Centre put out a tweet on Saturday requesting citizens to come forward and donate. Dr CS Pramesh, director, Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH), said, "There is a shortage of blood across the city, which is hampering medical care. There are no artificial alternatives to blood, and only blood donations can help us overcome this problem. At TMH, we treat thousands of patients who require blood, and we earnestly request the people of Mumbai to donate blood. By donating one unit of blood, you can save three lives."

He said TMH needs nearly 60 units of blood daily. "We had a 60 per cent drop at the peak of the lockdown but currently we are experiencing a 25 per cent drop," said Dr Pramesh, adding that TMH was ready to organise blood donation camps at housing societies with a reasonable number of donors. "We have done that right through the pandemic with strict adherence to physical distancing norms and other precautions."

No camps happening

Dr Hemant Deshmukh, dean of KEM Hospital said, "We have tied up with NGOs and managed somehow. The shortage is there because no camps are happening in railway stations, colleges and corporate offices," he said. Vikas Vira from NGO Tarun Mitra Mandal said, "Many ganpati mandals haven't got permission this year to keep idols and hence couldn't organise blood donation camps." Vinay Shetty of NGO Think Foundation said, "The daily requests for blood from some of the major hospitals in the city have gone up by 200 per cent."

The tweet put out by Tata Memorial Centre

He further said, "Almost 95 per cent of the city's blood requirement comes from donation camps. One-third of that comes from camps held in corporate offices. Almost 14 per cent of the total blood camps used to happen in colleges and another 14 to 15 per cent at religious institutions. The pandemic has affected all these camps." He thalassemia children are the worst affected as they need blood transfusion after every 21 days. (To organise blood donation camps in your society premises, contact Vinay Shetty on 9820146448 or e-mail vinay@thinkfoundation.org)

Follow the rules to donate blood

As per the current norms, if a person has taken the vaccine, s/he can donate blood only 14 days after the jab. In case of people who were infected by COVID, they should defer donating blood for 28 days from the day of discharge/isolation and complete recovery, including radiological and virological clearance.