Information

Medical Conditions and blood donation

As per the Drugs and Cosmetics Act and guidelines from national blood transfusion council the medical conditions mentioned for deferral is vague and incomplete and hence the medical officer has got the discretion to take or defer donation based on recent developments in modern medicine.  

According to Dr Sunder Periyavan, Additional Professor, Officer in charge, Transfusion Medicine Center, NIMHANS, Bangalore -

By: Dr. Amrit Kaur Kaler, MD., Assistant Professor of Pathology, MVJ Medical College & Research Hospital, Bangalore.

What are Neocytes ?

Neocytes are new red cells which comes from bone marrow afresh. They have a longer life span, say about 120 days in the circulation. These young red cells survive longer after transfusion and therefore may contribute to the extension of intervals between transfusions.

A blood donor came up with the question as to what he/she should do if he/she gets to know that he/she has been tested positive for any disease?

A donor may test positive for HIV, Hepatitis –B, Hepatitis-C, Syphils or Malaria. Here, Dr Shivram C, Consultant & Chief Manipal Hospital Transfusion Services answers the question from a perspective of a donor who tests reactive (positive) for Hepatitis B infection (HBsAg-Reactive).

Blood donated by an individual for his or her exclusive use at a later stage is referred to as an autologous or self-donation. The primary advantage of autologous donations is simple: your own blood is an exact blood match with no cross matching issues.

Thalassemia is a medical condition that requires the patient in some cases to undergo many blood trnsfusions. Many children are affected from this condition. The disease is a genetically inherited and is very prevalent in India. The article intends to give the reader a brief overview of Thalassemia

What is Thalassemia?

Sankalp has been organizing plenty of blood donation drives in the past few years. Thousands of donors have donated blond. However there is always a small section of people who don not get to donate blood. Many of them specially ladies are anemic and hence not eligible for blood donation. It is determined by the amount of Hemoglobin present in the blood.

Few of us are not very convinced with the fact that Donating blood is a very safe process. Various myths along with the lack of awareness amongst the people contribute to the unwillingness to donate blood. Here we will discuss some of the common reasons why blood donation is a very safe procedure.

Myth: As needle is involved in the process, one may contract AIDS or related disease:

Every time you walk into a blood donation drive organized by Sankalp, one of the pre donation measures adopted is a Hemoglobin test. Do you know what is it all about? Read on to know the value of that little prick on your finger before the actual donation.