Pakistan sets up helpline for blood and plasma donations as virus cases surge

A health official wearing protective gear takes blood sample of a man at a drive-through screening and testing facility for the COVID-19 coronavirus, alongside a street in Islamabad on June 10, 2020. (AFP)

• June 14, annually celebrated as World Blood Donor Day, has been met with a nationwide fall in blood donations
• Pakistan needs three million blood bags every year to meet total transfusion and emergency needs

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani authorities have set up a helpline for regular blood as well as COVID-19 plasma donors, as surging coronavirus case rates have led to blood drives canceled around the country and strained regular supply.
Pakistan’s notoriously unregulated blood banks have been in the spotlight in recent years owing to the hundreds of thousands of people who require regular blood transfusions in the country-- covering a vast spectrum from thalassemia to kidney and hepatitis patients.
These patients now bear the brunt of the deficit in blood donations as the pandemic sweeps across Pakistan with almost 140,000 coronavirus cases recorded as of Sunday.
“We have set up a helpline for the donors, especially for COVID-19 survivors, to facilitate them in blood donation,” Saqib Mumtaz, a spokesperson for the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), told Arab News on Sunday.
June 14 is annually celebrated as World Blood Donor Day to raise awareness of the need for safe blood and blood products, and to thank donors for their voluntary and life-saving gift. 
But this year, countries around the world have reported a sharp fall in blood donations as governments restrict mobility and fears of infection affect availability.
“If plasma is a real therapy for COVID-19, then the government must identify specific centers where survivors can donate easily,” Abdul Haq, 44, who recovered from COVID-19 in Islamabad, told Arab News on Sunday.
No public or private institution had so far reached out to him to coordinate a plasma donation, he added.
Survivors of COVID-19 are generally left with blood containing antibodies made by the body’s immune system to fight off the virus. 
The blood plasma that carries the antibodies can be collected and given to newly infected patients, a method that has proven effective in treating people with a range of illnesses in the past. However, data on its effectiveness in treating COVID-19 is still inconclusive. 
In Pakistan, voluntary blood donations fulfil only 50 percent of the country’s total requirement, according to Dr. Saqib Ansari, a haematologist at Children’s Hospital Karachi.
With 100,000 patients suffering from thalassemia alone in Pakistan and 5,000 babies born with it every year, he added the country required at least three million blood bags every year just to meet its total transfusion and emergency needs.
“The real challenge is to get safe blood and its proper transfusion to patients,” he said.
He expressed concern that huge percentages of patients-- up to 70 percent receiving blood transfusions-- were liable to contract Hepatitis B or C due to the failure of proper blood screening.
These concerns were as important for coronavirus patients seeking blood plasma therapy, he said, with regulation falling under the ambit of the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan.
“The best available testing and screening of the plasma must be ensured before transfusing it to COVID-19 patients to prevent other infections, and gauge the treatment’s efficacy,” he said.