Death by the bag

The sight of blood bags hung up in hospital walls or emergency centres usually suggests life. It appears though that blood can perhaps just as often, at least in our country, bring death. According to a limited study conducted by the Karachi based NGO, between the years 2013 and 2015, out of 200 child patients admitted to the ward, 46 percent were infected with hepatitis. The dangerous ‘C’ strain of the disease was found to be the most common, infecting 69 of the 86 patients suffering the disease. It is thought that all the patients had been infected through the blood transfusions that they received on a regular basis to help combat their cancer. It has also been noted that the HIV infection, which can lead to AIDS, has also in some cases been transmitted with the blood.

In this small study, the rate of transmission discovered is dangerous, with 73 percent of patients admitted to the cancer ward in 2012 found to suffer blood-borne infections. Health experts say the reasons for this lie in the extremely poor screening of blood obtained from blood banks in our country. The issue has been brought up before as well. Previous reports have shown that much of the blood stored in blood banks comes from drug addicts or others who suffer severe and dangerous illness; these are people who donate in order to earn small sums of money. There is still a belief that blood donation will weaken a donor, and this in some cases prevents relatives or other healthy individuals in society from regularly donating blood as should be happening. The Sindh AIDS control programme says that cases of transmission of the AIDS virus through blood transfusions have been detected in children. There are currently 163 child patients with AIDS or HIV registered with the programme. The actual number could of course be far higher. A wider inquiry into the problem is urgently required. This could be a vital factor in saving lives and ensuring that death is not transfused into our already vulnerable children.