In a much-awaited move that would go a long way in cutting down maternal deaths and also help early diagnosis of congenital bleeding disorders such as haemophilia and Von Willebrand disease, the Union Health Ministry has chalked out a plan envisaging setting up a network of coagulation labs in all the district hospitals and State medical colleges in the country.
A senior health official said that hemorrhage (constant bleeding) and thrombosis(clotting of blood in a blood vessel) are important causes of mortality and morbidity across the country, and hence there is a need for their proper management as well as judicious use of blood products assessment of coagulation system in a patient.
“Hence, we are pushing the States to set up a coagulation lab comes with many advantages, reducing maternal mortality during pregnancy and snake bite that kills almost 40-50,000 people in the country are just a few of them. A large number of deaths are due to haemorrhage . Similarly various infection associated bleeding during dengue , leptospirosis, septicaemia and others can be managed rationally only if a reasonably efficient coagulation laboratory is in place.
“Also, many congenital bleeding disorders such as haemophilia , Von willebrand disease , rare coagulation factor deficiencies , platelet defects etc can be diagnosed through these laboratories,” said the official.
He cited various studies that have shown that 15-20 per cent of women in reproductive age group who were diagnosed with dysfunctional uterine bleeding — this constitute 10-15 per cent of women population of reproductive age group — are actually suffering from undiagnosed congenital bleeding disorder.
“This is a huge number and constitutes 1-2 per cent of women in reproductive age group in the country. Diagnosing them and treating them will solve a reasonable chunk of iron deficiency in this population, he said.
There are 715 district hospitals and 200 government medical colleges in the country. And as many districts medical colleges have come up in the place of civil hospitals, at least 800 labs are required, as per the government plan.
Once these labs are in place the government is expecting to reach to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well in the maternal mortality rates as well as providing early treatment to the persons detected with the bleeding disorders.