‘Blood donor shortage will hit thalassaemia, sickle cell patients’

Nagpur: Maharashtra Medical Council’s vice-president Dr Vinky Rughwani has appealed to people for donating blood before getting vaccinated. Dr Rughwani, who is also the director of Thalassaemia and Sickle Cell Centre, said, “In the ongoing second wave of Covid-19 pandemic, a lot of people have tested Covid positive due to which blood donation camps cannot be held. This had negatively impacted the thalassaemia and sickle cell patients as they require blood transfusion quite often.”
He added that many patients require blood transfusion once in a month, some in 20 days while others require blood in 15 days. “Due to paucity of blood, the blood banks are now asking the patients to bring blood donors. Government has announced the Covid vaccination of people between 18 and 45 years who are also the probable blood donors. The government has issued the instruction that once a person gets vaccinated he/she cannot donate blood for a month. As a gap of 45 to 60 days is to be maintained between two doses, the people are refrained from donating blood for two and half to three months. This situation has led to great crisis and escalated the troubles of the thalassaemia and sickle cell patients,” said Dr Rughwani.