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Monday, Jul 23, 2007
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National Authority to regulate blood collection to be set up

Aarti Dhar

Authority will ensure access to safe blood
Four centres of excellence to come up

NEW DELHI: The Centre has decided to set up a National Blood Transfusion Authority (NBTA) to regulate the blood collection and distribution system in the country.

Besides providing access to safe blood at affordable prices, the authority will also promote rational use of blood. The body will be empowered to take action against violators.

While the full-fledged authority is expected to come up in two years, the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry will establish four centres of excellence this year in the four metros that will have a capacity to collect and process one lakh units of blood annually. These centres will cater to the four zones.

The Ministry has constituted three task forces to look into the various aspects related to blood banking. They have been asked to submit their reports by the end of this month following which the process of setting up the authority would begin. A technology resource group has been asked to decide on the pricing.

Blood safety was a major area of focus in the National AIDS Control Programme (NACP)-II, and modernisation of blood banks and installation of blood components separation centres were taken up. “Through these efforts, we have brought down the transmission of HIV infection through contaminated blood to less than 2 per cent,” according to Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Anbumani Ramadoss.

Greater emphasis on the quality of blood would further help in reducing blood-transfusion related infections including HIV, Hepatitis B and malaria, he added.

There are 2,211 blood banks in the country of which 862 are government-managed, 297 are run by charitable institutions and the remaining are private blood banks. To begin with, the Government will bring under its purview the government and charitable blood banks.

At present, all blood banks report to the National Blood Transfusion Council which, however, is neither a licensing authority nor does it have any punitive powers. Blood banks across the country obtain their licences from the Drugs Controller-General of India and report to the State AIDS Control Organisation or the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO).

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