Blood donation in India - 'The situation must change'

India, with a population of over a billion, has a meager availability of 2.5 million units of blood against a minimum modest annual requirement of approx 6 million units. A study conducted in New Delhi, the capital city of India in 1991 reported that nearly 40% of all the donations in this city were from paid donors. They reported that only 17% of all the donations were voluntary while 43% were replacement donations. Following a government sponsored study, which showed a high incidence of hepatitis-B among paid donors, the Supreme Court of India passed an order banning the payment of money to blood donors from January 1998. This led to a further shortage of blood units in India largely because of lack of public initiative to donate blood voluntarily. This lack of initiative perhaps could be related to general illiteracy, large families, poverty, poor knowledge of blood donation, little motivation, regional beliefs and misconceptions. Even in Kerala, the people do not know the difference between professional donors, replacement donors and voluntary donors. The only solution to this therefore is to increase the number of voluntary donors.

References:

-AIDS and blood transfusion programme in India, Jolly JG, Journal of the Indian Medical Association  1994; 92: 141-3.

-Knowledge, Attitudes and Socio-Demographic Factors Differentiating Blood Donors From Non- Donors in an Urban Slum of Delhi, Bir Singh, RM Pandey et al, Indian Journal of Community Medicine, Vol. 27, No. 3 (2002-07 - 2002-09)