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INDIA AWAITS POSSIBLE BLOOD-SUPPLY SHORTAGE

Feb 22nd, 1998 • Posted in: News

DELHI
Health officials here worry that the recent decision by India’s Supreme Court to ban purchase of blood from paid donors may produce a crisis this spring, when the ban may lead to a short blood supply and an unregulated black market in paid donations.

India’s government instituted the ban on paid donations — and professional blood banks that pay for blood — in hopes of stanching the flow of infected blood currently flooding the country’s heath-care system. In a nation racked by poverty, the sale of blood is an attractive option, but one which frequently appeals to alcoholics and drug addicts. Some blood bank operators failed to screen the purchased blood for viruses and contaminants such as HIV and hepatitis-B.

Neither the public nor representatives of India’s professional blood banks dispute the government’s motives in enacting the money-for-blood ban. But blood bank operators complain that the new ban unfairly penalizes responsible blood banks.

India’s hospitals depend on professional blood banks for nearly 40 percent of their national supply, and voluntary donations — now the only legal way to give blood — are not currently sufficient to meet the demand.

Critics of the ban question the ethics of the government’s decision, charging that the measure will cost many lives now in order to save others in the future.

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