NEW DELHI: The government is set to streamline the
rules for blood donation for safety of both patients and donors. The health ministry is expected to come up with specific
donor selection criteria.
For instance, the proposed rules prohibit a woman from
donating blood for 12 months after
child birth.
Similarly, she cannot donate for six months after abortion and during breastfeeding and menstruation.
The Centre has also proposed to rename ‘blood banks’ as ‘blood centres’ across the country. The draft rules, recently approved by the Drugs Technical Advisory Board, are part of a proposal to amend Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945. The changes are likely to be notified by the government soon.
As per the proposed rules, one can’t donate blood for three months after recovering from
malaria, six months after recovering from dengue and chikungunya and four months after recuperating from the Zika virus.
The draft rules also prohibit blood donation by jail inmates and by a person with a history of travel in a geographical area, which is endemic for diseases that can be transmitted by blood transfusion. They also suggest deferring blood donation for six and 12 months after a minor and major surgery, respectively.
