Doctors from Bengaluru hospital donate blood to help stock up IVIG

BENGALURU: As hospitals in the city gear up for the anticipated third wave of Covid-19, Aster CMI Hospital in Bengaluru is stocking up Intravenous Immunoglobulin (IVIG) required to treat Multisystem inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) and neonates (MIC-N) in severe Covid or post-Covid cases.
To boost the efforts, doctors and healthcare staff at the hospital, in association with Aster volunteers, the global CSR arm of Aster DM Healthcare, donated blood on the occasion of World Blood Donor Day. 

Speaking about the initiative, Dr Chetan Ginigeri, lead consultant, Pediatrics and Neonatology, Aster CMI Hospital, said that they have recently come across “several cases of MIS-C among kids and, with the third wave coming, the number of such cases are expected to increase further. In times of Covid, voluntary blood donations have completely stopped.

In hospitals treating all kinds of medical, surgical and oncology, the demand for blood is constant. The drugs used in Covid and post-Covid complications in children, called intravenous immunoglobulin, has it origin in pooled plasma from blood donors,” he said. “We would also like to encourage all stakeholders in the sector to come forward and donate blood that can help in saving the lives of several children and adults,” added Dr Ginigeri.