As the dengue cases are on the rise, blood banks in city are witnessing a rise in the demand for blood platelets. In the past one month major blood banks in city have seen a rise in demand by almost 40%. Normal platelet count ranges from 1.5 lakh to 4 lakh in human beings. Generally when a person is hit with dengue, the blood platelet count goes down below 20,000, it is these patients who needs to be transfused with blood platelets immediately.
"Past few weeks we are seeing a rise in the demand for blood platelets by almost about 40% especially the single donor platelet. Every year, during this season we witness a rise in the demand for blood platelets. On normal days we used to get a demand of 1-2 units of single donor platelets usually for cancer patients, but now on a daily basis we are getting requisition for 15-20 units of single donor blood platelets" said Dr Lata Jaganath, medical director, Rotary TTK Blood Bank.
Meanwhile, apart from procuring blood platelets from a single donor, in order to meet the rising demand and to see that there is no shortage, Rotary TTK Blood Bank is conducting more blood camps and collecting blood from random donors. Blood platelets are procured from the whole blood. Blood collected from random donors are processed into blood platelets and in another few hours it is being given to the patients, she further added.
Yet another blood bank, Karnataka Red Cross Blood Bank which gets requisition for blood and blood platelets from across the State too have been witnessing an increase in demand for blood platelets by about 30-50% in the past one month. Speaking to dna Dr D Rajashekarappa, cheif medical officer, Karnataka Red Cross Blood Bank said: "During the month of June 2014, everyday we used to get requisition for about 40 units of blood platelets, but starting from July 2014 we are getting requisition for about 60-63 units of blood platelets on an average everyday.
Even at Sankalp India Foundation, city based voluntary organization which works for blood donation and organizing blood for the needy, the requisition for blood platelets has shot up in the past one month. One of the volunteers told dna: "We are getting a lot of requisition for single donor platelets for patients suffering from dengue. At our helpline we have been getting almost about 10-15 calls everyday requesting for blood platelets. Most of the hospitals approach to us when the blood platelets count of the patients fall extremely low, below 20,000. Once the blood platelets count reach 50,000, one should be very careful."
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