It is estimated that our country requires 10-12 million units of blood each year and still we can manage up to 9.9 million units. Despite this shortage, poor quality of storage and other issues make more than 1 million units unusable, which are discarded. In the year of 2016-17, the country has discarded more than 150,000 units of whole blood, around 175,000 units of packed cells, more than 500,000 units of platelet concentrate, and more than 300,000 units of plasma. Although the figures are smaller than that of 2015-16, still it remains a matter of concern in a country like India.
The World Health Organization estimates that if 1% of the population of the country donates blood, the requirement is fulfilled. In that regard, our country is short of 2.5-3 million as only 9.5 million people donate blood. Source: Times of India What can be done to improve the storage of these precious units…
