CHENNAI: Though Chennai and Tamil Nadu led the nation in the number of voluntary blood donors in the country, blood banks had to deal with poor regulation of supply and sale of blood and components and a lack of awareness about using components instead of whole blood.

"With more blood banks in the country, it is necessary to have an independent agency to control them," said N.S. Murali, secretary, Voluntary Health Services on Saturday. He expressed concern about the lack of ethical practices in distribution and testing of donor blood by organisations and hospitals.

"Blood should not be promoted as a drug for sale as is currently being done and blood banks must not be under the control of the Drug Controller," Dr. Murali pointed out at a function to honour voluntary blood donors held under the aegis of Madras Voluntary Blood Bureau and the Association of Voluntary Blood Donors. Supply to blood banks was affected during the `dry period' when colleges and organisations such as the courts were on vacation. A mechanism was needed to ensure that voluntary donors could donate even during dry periods, he noted.

Some blood banks pooled samples for testing, using a single procedure. If one of the samples tested positive for a disease, only then were the samples tested separately. This was a crime, he said. Pooling saved money for the organisations but "the cost of blood collected for processing is more than enough to do the testing," Dr. Murali added.

Also, some hospitals procured blood from banks at the Government stipulated rate of Rs. 500 but sold the components at a higher rate, keeping it out of reach of the poor. He called for education of doctors to create awareness on the need to use blood components and not whole blood.

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