The science of manufacturing blood in labs is still elusive to mankind, and it can only come from generous donors.
During the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, with institutions closed and the lockdowns in place, blood banks experienced a severe shortage of blood supplies.
There is a constant need for blood and blood components, and donations are essential to community health. Every day, blood transfusion is required by thousands of people to keep them healthy or to enable them to stay alive. Blood loss due to an accident or illness, or a hematological condition affecting the production of red blood cells can be detrimental, as there will not be enough oxygen or other nutrients to maintain functioning of vital organs.
Thrombocytopenia (or platelet drop) is seen in a number of infection cases such as malaria, dengue, etc. Blood components such as platelets are crucial in the management of these infections.
During the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, with institutions closed and lockdowns in place, blood banks experienced a severe shortage of blood supplies.
The science of manufacturing blood in labs is still elusive to mankind, and it can only come from generous donors.
During the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, with institutions closed and lockdowns in place, blood banks experienced a severe shortage of blood supplies. In the initial stage of the pandemic, as non-COVID work and surgeries decreased due to the entire focus being on treatment of COVID patients, the acute shortage did not cause a major crisis. However, now that we have realised non-COVID work and surgeries must go on simultaneously, there is a need to ramp up donation drives.
Another setback to blood donations would’ve been the earlier policy set out by health authorities — blood cannot be donated for 28 days after each dose of the vaccine.
As most of the eligible donors falling in the 18-44 age category were to get inoculated from 1 May and wouldn’t be able to donate for almost one month, the country would’ve faced a huge shortage.
However, this was revised. NEGVAC has recommended that an individual can donate blood after 14 days of getting vaccinated or testing RT-PCR negative if they were suffering from COVID-19 .
Apart from being a noble act, blood donation confers certain benefits to the donor. They are:
The author is a consultant in the Department of Infectious Diseases, Jaslok Hospital and Research Centre.
Stay connected with us on social media platform for instant update click here to join our Twitter, & Facebook
We are now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@TechiUpdate) and stay updated with the latest Technology headlines.
For all the latest Health News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
