Two per cent of blood collected in Maharashtra discarded

A part of the total number of blood bags collected in the state goes waste as the blood is infested with communicable diseases. Figures on blood units for the last three released by State Blood Transfusion Council show that blood banks have had to discard 2% of its collection because of this. Last year SBTC collected 14.75 lakh units, of that 29,000 were discarded.

There are 300 SBTC-controlled blood banks in the state. Maharashtra is the number one in the country in terms of blood collection. Last year, the state's total collection was 14,75,238 bags.

The main reason why blood is thus discarded is because donors are found to have been infected with diseases like HIV, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, Venereal Diseases or Malaria. As per protocol, after every unit of blood collected has to be screened before it is issued to patients.

The maximum numbers of blood bags thus discarded was due to donors being infected with Hepatitis B. Hepatitis C and HIV infected donors were also common. However, there weren't many infected with Venereal Disease or Malaria.

Dr Arun Bal, president, Association for Consumers Action on Safety and Health, said: "This shows that 2% of the donors don't know they suffer from the various kinds of infections."