Apparently hamstrung by low stocks of platelets in the blood banks, the beleaguered district medical health and family welfare department is hoping that the blood donation camps organised on the occasion of National voluntary blood donation day on October 1 would replenish its stock of platelets. The platelets are needed to be transfused in the patients of dengue as the number of this component of blood goes down drastically in dengue, the loss of platelets could trigger hemorrhage which could be fatal.
Meanwhile, with the district health department reporting 11 new cases of Dengue on Wednesday the total number of cases in the district mounted to 301. The department reported that 89 units are platelets are available in different blood banks of the district on Wednesday. The Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Dehradun, Dr S P Agarwal said that it is expected that good amount of blood would be donated by people on the occasion of voluntary blood donation day. He however claimed that the blood banks of the city are having sufficient stock of the blood component including platelets. The CMO said that since the shelf life of platelets is very less it need to the extracted afresh. He said that with temperature going down the number of cases of dengue too would decline. However contrary to the claims of the health department the dengue patients are finding difficulty in finding platelets. The problem is more severe for the patients with negative blood groups.
Interestingly the number of dengue cases in the district is much higher this year than last year. The total cases reported last year was 121.