A rickshaw puller before undergoing a heart surgery requested some volunteers for some 10 bags of blood. When 10 young people went to a renowned government hospital, where the elderly poor man was admitted, the doctors received the blood without knowing about their health issues and endorsed the bags without screening for diseases.
In response to questions raised by the donors, the hospital authorities claimed that they had no time for screening the blood as the patient was in critical state.
It is a clear violation of rules and an example of sheer negligence for which the patient may develop more serious diseases transmitted through the donated blood.
Not only for the public hospitals, blood provided by different private blood banks for clinics is also mostly unsafe as those are often contaminated with various germs, says a haematologist working with a renowned blood bank.
According to the police, there are over 100 illegal blood banks operating in the capital.
Some secret blood banks in Old Dhaka, Mohammadpur and Shyamoli areas are run by gangs comprising two or three nurses and assistants who work at different hospitals. They collect blood from drug addicts and homeless people who sell blood on regular basis, and store haphazardly in unhygienic condition. When any poor patient needs blood, they offer those secretly. Such banks do not have any government approval to operate.
According to the licence rules, a blood bank must recruit doctors, nurses and technicians to test five diseases in the blood of a donor – HIV Aids, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, malaria and syphilis, said experts.
Though some blood banks have authorisation, they do not maintain record books to store data of the donors. On March 23, a mobile court sealed off a registered blood bank for irregularities in the capital’s Bakshibazar. Executive Magistrate AHM Anwar Pasha said: “Though it has a licence, the authorities did not recruit any doctor or nurse to test donors’ blood for diseases. A staff at the centre used to do the job instead.” There was no information available with the centre on the donors too.
An illegal blood bank owner, Rawnak Parvin, who has only a deep freeze at her bank in Shyamoli, said: “Patients need blood and we serve it.”
Physician Dr Gautam Ray said: “Hepatitis B virus is common in our blood; so we have to screen the donated blood before giving it for any patient.” When the blood is collected on commercial basis, the situation is more vulnerable.
A research of the ICDDRB says blood selling is an income-generating activity for the homeless men and women. Seven percent of the drug addicts in Dhaka donate blood regularly to earn money, it states in a recent report.
The Dhaka Tribune met several donors at a dumping ground in the city. They are drug addicts, but escape by selling blood regularly. They said it was a quick way to earn money.
Expressing concern over such risky process, Professor Rashid-e-Mahbub, an activist of Bangladesh Health Rights Movement, said: “These are not blood banks; we should call them killer banks.”
Professor ABM Abdul Hannan, director (hospital) at health department, admitted that they were facing difficulties to supervise the private blood banks.
“We are trying to monitor the centres whether they follow the rules, and already sealed some of the illegal banks.” He also asked the media to come forward on this issue.
