TOI : Got 80 minutes? Donate platelets : Sept 9, 2007

Got 80 minutes? Donate platelets
KEM Hospital Prepares Registry Of Potential Donors In City
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Mumbai: KEM Hospital, one of the city's premier medical institutions, needs
platelet donors. The hospital is looking for altruistic people who can spare
80 minutes, about twice a month.

    "Given the lack of awareness about platelet donation in the city,
doctors from KEM Hospital's blood bank and preventive social medicine
department are creating a registry of persons who don't mind giving a little
of their time and platelets whenever the city's various hospitals need the
life-saving component,'' said the hospital's blood bank head, Dr Jaishree
Sharma.

    Platelets are a component of blood that help clotting. Instead of giving
whole blood to patients suffering from cancer or any other viral disease,
the new international trend is to give them platelets directly.

    At KEM, the procedure of collecting platelets is simple: the donor is
strapped to the platelet pherisis, a technology in which only the chosen
component (in this case, platelet) is collected. "Considering that platelets
have a shelf life of just five days, there is a need for a continuous flow
of donors,'' said Dr Ravi Kant of Doctors For You, an NGO that coordinated a
donation-cum-awareness drive on Friday. Moreover, as the procedure takes 80
minutes, barely eight persons can donate platelets in a day, said the NGO's
Dr Gunjan Sharma.

    On Friday, State Blood Transfusion Council chief Dr Sanjay Jadhav, who
was present at the drive's inauguration, highlighted how Mumbai has become
self-sufficient in platelets this year. "We had a deficit in 2005 and 2006.
We had to fly in platelets from other states, but we have managed to become
self-sufficient with our daily donation drives at Dadar and Andheri railway
stations,'' he told the audience.

    Yet, given the increasing demand for platelets from patients suffering
from leukemia, aplastic anaemia and seasonal viral diseases like dengue or
bacterial infection like leptospirosis, any extra unit is welcome. "The need
for platelets increases in monsoons due to the outbreak of diseases,'' said
Dr Jadhav.

    The KEM drive has the potential to ensure that Mumbai's patients get
platelets on time and free, when the private sector charges almost Rs 16,000
for a platelet transfusion.

    "The beauty of platelet donation is that the donor's body makes up for
the loss within a day and the person can technically donate within the next
48 hours,'' says Dr Sharma. However, medical experts say that a platelet
donor is encouraged to donate not more than 24 times a year (the
corresponding figure for blood donors is four times a year). For recipients,
the risk of infection is lower as compared to blood transfusion.

    (Those interested in donating platelets can register by calling KEM on
9833158385)

SAVING LIVES: Mumbai, which had a platelet deficit in 2005 and 2006 is now
self-sufficient


Publication:Times Of India Mumbai; Date:Sep 9, 2007; Section:Times City;
Page Number:5

URL :
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JTS8yMDA3LzA5LzA5I0FyMDA1MDE=&Mode=HTML&Locale=english-skin-custom