Why India Is Facing Huge Blood Crisis

Country has largest shortage of 41mn units, says global study

- Milan Sharma

They were the most difficult six hours of Meenakshi Sharma’s life. The MNC executive scrambled to arrange blood needed for her boy’s complex surgery at a prominent hospital in Delhi.

“We almost lost him. My husband somehow managed supplies from a private blood bank in the city in the nick of time,” said the 40-year-old. It was a happy ending. But there are thousands in the country who aren’t as fortunate as Sharma’s child.

India has the world’s largest shortage of blood, with all states together battling a huge shortfall of 41 million units and demand outstripping supply by over 400%, says the first of its kind study published in the journal The Lancet. And demand is rising, says the findings. The overall global shortfall is 100 million units.

The crisis has crippled life-saving transfusions that save thousands of lives each year and replace blood that is lost through surgery or injury or provide it if the body is not making blood properly.

WHY SO MUCH BLOOD IS NEEDED

Patients may need a blood transfusion if they have anaemia, sickle cell disease, a bleeding disorder such as hemophilia, or cancer. A cancer patient, on an average, needs at least 100 units of blood.

India relies heavily on transfusions due to a higher prevalence of blood-borne diseases and complications during pregnancy.

About 60 million trauma-induced surgeries are performed in the country every year. It is a witness to more than 1,200 road crashes every day.

The 230 million major operations, 331 million cancer-related procedures like chemotherapy and 10 million pregnancy complications require blood transfusion.

WHY THE CRISIS