A STUDY ON THE WORKING OF BLOOD BANK
Authors: SINGH AJIT PAL , SAXENA RAHUL , SAXENA SUYASH 
Published: July 2023

Blood is an important drug in times of critical medical ailments during this pandemic. Plasma-related therapy (PR) is an efficient way to treat critical patients that decrease the rate of hospitalizations by intensive care. In the meantime, Plasma Bank reviewed the Blood Transfusion Systems in India, which lies at the root of Plasma Bank network development. An analysis report on the blood banks in India has been presented to improve the blood transfusion systems in India. For this study we take into account the blood bank data available on the Indian government's data portal data.gov.in. The study concludes that India's blood banks are not proportionate to the population of the States and Union territories and are non-uniform in distribution. In India, blood storage units are not a proposal for blood banks that can lead to blood wastage. In order to facilitate recovery plasma therapy during the current crisis, blood bank distributed necessary machines to NON- NACO Blood Bank too.

The convalescent plasma therapy was considered to be one of the treatments for SARS-CoV-2 during this pandemic due to serious acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus, but current evidence shows that convalescent plasma does not improve survival or reduce the need for mechanical ventilation (WHO guidelines 7th December 2021). Though over the past two decades, convalescent Plasma Therapy (CP) has also proved to be one of the efficient means for quick recovery in the treatment of SARS-CoV-1, MERS-CoV. This involves collecting plasma containing the COVID antibodies from the recovered people to treating infected people. The retrieved Sars-Cov-2 infected between 18-60 years can donate 500-600 cc of plasma collected in a therapeutic apheresis device after 14 days. This therapy is considered to be an effective method for dealing with critical patients, among several studies relating to Convalescent Plasma (CP) therapy, which can reduce the high demand rate of intensive care hospitalizations during this pandemic. In India, Delhi's government has taken steps to establish a plasma bank to help patients in Delhi/NCR, as COVID-19 cases are exponentially growing. This plasma theory was approved by the Indian Government to save people's lives from serious health problems. But as off now owing to the current studies and WHO latest guidelines (7th December 2021) convalescent plasma does not hold any relevance in covid cases as convalescent plasma does not improve survival or reduce the need for mechanical ventilation.

The Blood transfusion service (BTS) is an important unit. During blood transfers and donations that save lives and improve health, the National AIDS Control Organization has increased awareness and implementation of current infectious markers (T.T.I). India ranks third in HIV/AIDS, which is closely related to blood and healthcare practices, as the WHO country cooperative strategy reports. The report of WHO statistical survey suggests that over 95 percent of countries with high income have blood self-sustainability, while middle and lower national blood requirements do not meet their own needs. Blood donation camps throughout the countries should be organized regularly to meet the daily needs of the patients for their blood.

The blood banks in India have been supported by NACO, the Health Ministry, the Indian government as well as well as some of the Non-NACO blood banks. In order to deliver the equipment, consumables, labor, and capacity building, NACO's efforts had strengthened all the blood banks across the country. There are three sources to get blood such as walk-in licensed blood banks, blood donation camps and mobile blood camps. Maintaining the self-sustainability of blood supplies and blood needs is one of the main issues for the government in most countries. In 2013, only high-income WHO nations reported a 95% self-sustainability of their use in the WHO safety and availability fact sheets. Non-sustainability problems in low- and middle-income countries are due to lack of motive and poor perception of voluntary blood donations and waste of blood and manual errors could another be the reason behind it, and due to which the blood requirement is not met. There are currently so many challenges that has prevented the donation of plasma among patients which could be result of fear of COVID-19. During this pandemic crisis the study was carried out with the objective of improving the blood transfusion systems in India. This study presents the analysis report on India's blood banks in accordance with the geographical distribution, population and facilities such as apheresis and CBSU.