NEW DELHI, July 14: Indian blood is very inexpensive by international comparisons. But it may not remain so for very long. The price of blood in government hospitals, heavily subsidised at present, could go up if the suggestion of the Drug Controller of India is accepted by the Government.

Health experts are predicting a massive shortage of blood in a few months when professional blood donors will be banned. Of the three million units of blood currently drawn every year, nearly half is from professional donors. And there is no sign of the public being galvanised to donate voluntarily.

A huge gap already exists between demand and supply of blood. The country needs nearly six million units but only half is available even with professional donors.

Following the Supreme Court's order, all professional donors are to be weeded out by December 31 this year.

To overcome the shortfall, the Health Ministry is thinking of going in for the component therapy (in which blood is divided into its various components like plasma products, platelets etc) so that wastage is minimised. But only 40 blood banks in the whole country have the basic infrastructure for component manufacturing. And such centres are very capital intensive.

``The existing centres need modernisation and operations would have to be scaled up to meet the demand,'' says Drug Controller of India P Das Gupta. Das Gupta has also suggested the inclusion of IV fluids and blood under the Drug Price Control Order (DPCO) for optimum price control based on actual cost. He has written to the Department of Chemicals under which the DPCO falls.

According to Das Gupta, the prices of IV fluids are way below the actual cost thanks to undercutting by manufacturers. Blood, which costs Rs 400 to 600 per bottle at private hospitals, costs only Rs 200 at government hospitals due to subsidies. Das Gupta points out that a bottle costs $ 45 (about Rs 1,575) in the US.

Meanwhile, all blood banks - private and government - in the country have now been inspected and licensed. The licences are valid for two years. In a huge operation, 1,119 blood banks were inspected by Central and state drug controllers. Of these, 114 were rejected (44 of them in Maharashtra) and have now been closed down.

The Supreme Court had ordered that all blood banks should be inspected and licensed by May 16 this year and the Drug Controller's office worked day and night to meet the deadline.

The Supreme Court's order on blood bank licensing and professional donors followed a public interest litigation (PIL) after the Bombay Red Cross Society's blood bank was found to have supplied HIV-contaminated blood.

The Supreme Court had also ordered the Union Government to strengthen the Central and state drug controllers by providing more testing laboratories, enforcement staff and field staff to monitor the blood banking system. ``Nothing has happened so far. In the meantime, our blood was sucked out,'' remarks Das Gupta ruefully.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.