Patna, March 31: Experts prescribed two pills — strict monitoring of transfusions in hospitals and more awareness on the importance of voluntary blood donation — to curb bad blood business.

Dr Vinay Bahadur Sinha, the chairman of Red Cross Blood Bank, suggested the government to make it mandatory for every private hospital and nursing home to maintain a record of blood transfusions.

“If the hospitals keep the record showing how much blood is being transfused every month and where is that blood being collected from, there will be a lot of transparency in the system and nursing homes will not be able to facilitate illegal blood transfusions. This practice has to be executed strictly,” Sinha said.

Several officials in the Red Cross Blood Bank said lack of awareness on the need of voluntary blood donation promoted the illegal blood trade.

Sinha said: “It is unfortunate that most people do not want to donate blood even for their kin. As there is blood exchange policy in blood banks most people go for buying blood from illegal sources than from authorised blood banks. This has given rise to an army of professional blood donors who sell their blood every 10-15 days.”

He also said professional blood donors were mostly drug abusers.

“Not only they might be suffering from different diseases, their blood quality mostly remains poor because they sell blood frequently. Also, as negative blood groups are rare — only about 3 percent of the population has negative blood groups — professional blood donors falling in that category take advantage of the situation,” Sinha said.

The illegal blood trade is deep-rooted in the state.

“The alarming trend forced Bihar State AIDS Control Society (BSACS) to instruct district magistrates and superintendents of police to take action against the hospitals and blood banks indulging in the illegal practice of buying and selling blood in lieu of money,” Dr Devendra Prasad, the additional project director, BSACS, said.

A senior health department official admitted that there had been numerous complaints regarding the evil practice.

“The Supreme Court banned professional blood donation in 1998. Still, a number of private blood banks indulge in blood purchase clandestinely. These days, we are getting more complaints regarding hospitals using the blood sold by professional donors. This is not only illegal. It is dangerous, too, because in these cases the donated blood is not tested for diseases like HIV infection, malaria, syphilis, hepatitis B and C. This is a matter of huge concern for us,” said a senior official in the health department.

Test for six diseases — HIV, hepatitis B and C, malaria, VDRL, haemoglobin count — of donated blood is mandatory. But private hospitals indulging in illegal blood trade bypass the norm.

The official added: “The principal secretary had instructed to constitute teams led by drug inspectors in every district and conduct raids on hospitals and private labs, which are not authorised blood banks. They had been asked to inform senior cops and district administration about the illegal practitioners.”