Matching blood groups before marriage is more important than matching horoscope and for Thalassemia patients, seeking nuptial partners’ blood matching is of paramount importance.
Speaking on the concluding day of the “Rakt Pravah” the sixth annual conference of Indian Medical Association (IMA), Blood Bank of Uttarakhand Dr Tejinder Singh of Rotary Blood Bank Delhi, highlighted the role of blood group matching in her lecture on “Social aspects of Thalassemia” here on Sunday. Thalassemia, a major common genetic disorder of blood, has two types — a mild Thalassemia minor and more dangerous Thalassemia major.
Singh said that if two persons with genes of Thalassemia minor marry then there is 25 per cent of chance that the children out of this marriage would be patients of Thalassemia major. Thalassemia major is marked by severe anaemia and the patient need regular blood transfusion to survive. She said that people need to be educated about the disease and its propagation pattern and the blood matching should be made a practice before marriages.
In his keynote address Consultant at the department of Transfusion Medicine, Molecular Biology and Transplant Immunology, Apolo Hospital, Delhi Dr RN Makroo said that the practice of whole blood transfusion should be minimised. He said that one unit of blood can be used for three patients if it is separated into three essential components — red cells, platelets and plasma, at present 70 per cent blood is transfused as whole blood and only 30 per cent is separated into components. Makroo said that apart from normal practice of testing donated blood for five diseases (Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, HIV, Malaria and Syphilis), leuko (WBC) reduction and Nuclear Acid Testing (NAT) techniques should also be employed for ensuring minimal infections after transfusion.
The Associate Professor, Pathology at HIHT University, Jolly Grant Dehradun Gita Negi highlighted the role of platelet management while transfusing platelets to the patients. Blood Bank in charge AIIMS Delhi Dr Anju Dubey, Associate Professor SDPGIMS, lukhnow Dr Atul Sonekar and Dr Ashish Tiwari of Sahara hospital lukhnow also delivered lectures on the occasion. The managing director of IMA Dr Umang Sahai thanked all the participants at the end of the conference.