World Thalassaemia Day: Cry for National Blood Bank gets louder

The acute need for a National Blood Bank in Bangladesh is now more pertinent than ever as the number of patients failing to secure a bag of blood when they need it the most keeps getting bigger by the day. 

Bangladesh has a 15-year-old plan to establish a National Blood Bank, but it remains unimplemented due to land allotment complications and patients continue to suffer.

The doctors of Gonoshasthaya Nagar Hospital on 25 March asked kidney patient Jane Alam to manage two bags of positive blood on an urgent basis for his dialysis. Even after contacting several organisations and posting on social media, Alam failed in his desperate search until after over 24 hours when a relative was kind enough to donate.  

Twelve-year-old thalassemia patient Md Shajib has to get a blood transfusion twice a month. However, for two months, his parents could not secure blood, resulting in Shajib becoming seriously ill. He was brought from Cumilla to Dhaka and had to be admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for a month.

Shajib's father Sabuj Mia told The Business Standard that he has to go through extremes to collect blood for his son every month. "School and college students sometimes donate blood." 

Such stories abound in Bangladesh. Suffering increases when rare group blood is required.

Doctors say if there was a national transfusion centre or a National Blood Bank (NBC) in Bangladesh like in other countries, the patient would not have to endure so much to secure blood. 

Dr Ashraful Hoque, assistant professor of Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery told The Business Standard that a national directory could easily be created if there is a national blood bank.

"The bank can keep a national directory with a list of demand and have it supplied accordingly," Dr Ashraful said. 

Much of the donated blood is wasted because blood stored for more than 25 days is thrown away, he said. 

"A national blood bank can easily reduce this waste," Dr Ashraful noted.

There are blood banks at the national level in various countries including Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Nepal in Southeast Asia, according to the World Health Organization. 

These are self-contained centres for blood testing, validation of blood test kits, training of manpower, screenings for blood transfusion complications, and monitoring of Transfusion Transmissible Infections (TTI).

"It is in our National Blood Policy to have a National Blood Programme under a National Blood Center," Professor Dr Ashadul Islam, chairman of the Department of Blood Transfusion Medicine, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) told TBS. 

"The programme is supposed to calculate how much blood is needed throughout the year, create awareness, and create a donors list," he said. 

"We have everything on paper but not in reality" Professor Dr Ashadul Islam added.

Blood situation in Bangladesh

Public and private hospitals in the country collected 9.60 lakh bags of blood in 2022, according to the Safe Blood Transfusion Programme of the Directorate General of Health Services. 

Of these, 76% came from patients' relatives and 24% were donated by volunteers. 

In Bangladesh, blood is mostly needed for accident victims, patients of eclampsia and preeclampsia and caesarean delivery. Besides, blood is needed for dialysis, and thalassemia patients. 

Besides, 30% of the blood collected is used to make various blood components. 

At present, the safe blood transfusion system across the country is being managed only through a temporary programme office located in each hospital under the directorate of health and Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

National blood bank remains a dream

In 2007, an initiative was taken to establish a National Blood Bank in the country realising the importance. 

However, it has not yet seen the light of day.

At a meeting of "National Safe Blood Transfusion Council" held on 7 February 2007, it was decided to set up an NBC.

According to that decision, approximately 0.96 acres of land in the capital's Mohakhali area was allocated for the establishment of NBC. 

According to the Operation Plan, Tk8 crore has been earmarked for the construction.

However,  due to a pending court case regarding that land, the building could not be constructed.

Later in February 2016, the health ministry allotted another space in the building of the Institute of Public Health to set up NBC.

However, Bangladesh National Nutrition Council was allocated for that place in 2017. 

Due to a lack of space, a national blood centre remains on paper only. 

Professor Dr Ashadul Islam, also General Secretary of the National Safe Blood Transfusion Expert Committee said, the government should provide space for setting up the NBC in the Health City that is going to be built in Mohakhali.

Professor Dr ABM Khurshid Alam, director general of Directorate General of Health Services told TBS that it would be better to have a National Blood Bank. 

"However, I do not have any information about the establishment of a blood bank officially at the moment," he said. 

"A Chinese company offered to work with plasma. In addition, a group from the Middle East wanted to work in blood production in Bangladesh. However, their proposals did not progress further," he added.

Sufferings of thalassemia 

Bangladesh, like the rest of the world, is going to observe World Thalassaemia Day 2023 today. This year's theme is "Be Aware. Share. Care."

About 5,000 children are born with thalassemia every year in Bangladesh, according to the health directorate. 

This means more than 20 children are born every day with this disease. These children require monthly blood transfusions and chelation therapy to remove the excess iron from their bodies in order to just stay alive.

Currently, the majority of the patients in Bangladesh do not get adequate treatment, especially since the transfusion of safe blood has been a big problem.