KATHMANDU, Nov 9: Dengue patients thronging hospitals in the capital are facing difficulties as the blood bank is running dry.
A dengue patient with hemorrhagic fever requires over six pints of blood daily in the initial phase of treatment. The daily requirement decreases with improvement in the condition of the patient but the blood bank cannot provide sufficient blood because no collection took place during the festival season.
There are over 200 dengue patients at Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Control Hospital, Teku alone, with around five new cases admitted every day.
“The condition of my wife is serious, but I could not get a single pint of blood” Ishwor Adhikari of Kapilbastu complained. His wife Muna, 32, is at Patan Hospital with dengue, having been referred to the capital on Sunday.
He said the doctor asked him to bring two pints of fresh ´O´ positive group blood and six pints of Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP). “We do not have any relatives here nor do we have acquaintances in Kathmandu” he said, taking a deep breathe.
The blood bank has asked Adhikari to find donors for the blood. This is not an isolated case as relatives of many other dengue patients are also bearing the brunt of the blood shortage.
Raju Neupane of Butwal has a similar story. He looked worried as he made the rounds of the blood bank at Exhibition Road on Monday to find blood for his ailing sister. “We should bring blood donors here as the blood bank demands replacement” he was heard telling relatives over the phone. She needs four pints and the blood bank asked him to bring at least two donors for replacement.
“We are facing a scarcity of fresh blood due to lack of adequate collection and the increasing number of dengue patients,” Shrawan Kumar Shrestha, a technical officer at the blood bank, said. The bank is also running low on PRP and fresh blood of negative sub-types.
The blood bank provided just 26 pints against replacement as of Monday afternoon, failing to provide even one pint for those who could not bring in donors. “We have not held any collection camp for the last two days,” said Lal Maya Gurung, a collection staffer at the blood bank.
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