"Blood is indeed the most precious gift which a human being can offer to another human being. There can be no greater service to humanity than to offer one's blood to save the life of another human being. The World Blood Donor Day is celebrated annually in order to acknowledge such generosity and humanity".
This statement was made yesterday at Hennessy Park Hotel, Ebène, by the Minister of Health and Quality of Life, Mr A. Gayan, at the opening ceremony of a workshop organised in the context of the World Blood Donor Day 2016. Mr N. Bodha, Minister of Public Infrastructure and Land Transport, was also present on that occasion.
During his speech Minister of Health recalled that one area of healthcare in which blood transfusion plays a major role in the area of acute trauma, the most common form of which these days is road traffic accidents. It is apposite that road safety is being treated not only as a transportation issue, but as a major public health issue, he said
According to statistics there were 11.6 road deaths per 100 000 population in 2015. Since the beginning of 2016, already 55 people have lost their lives in road traffic crashes and many more people are ending up disabled.
Minister Gayan underscored that the health sector is at the receiving end of road traffic crashes and contributes much not only through the care of victims of road traffic accidents but also through awareness campaigns in the community on the dangers of alcohol and other substance abuse. .
He gave the assurance that utmost precautions are taken by the Blood Transfusion Service in testing for infections like HIV and Hepatitis viruses. And that all doubtful blood units in a screening tests are discarded irrespective of the results of confirmatory testing.
Thus in 2015, a total of 818 units were discarded due to the reasons of reactivity in Transfusion Transmitted Infection screening. Of these 165 units were discarded due to HIV reactivity, 308 for Hepatitis C, 94 for Hepatitis B and 251 for Syphilis reactivity. The confirmed positive cases were only 13 HIV, 106 Hepatitis C, 41 Hepatitis B and 131 syphilis, with a total of 291 confirmed cases.
In a bid to further reduce the window period of infections, the Ministry of Health and Quality of Life is in the process of acquiring latest NAT (Nucleic Acid Testing) equipment, which will place the National Blood Transfusion Service of Mauritius at par with similar services in the developed world. A project for extension of current Blood Transfusion Service building is also underway to provide more space to accommodate new activities.
The theme of the workshop is "Blood Transfusion Support in Acute Trauma". Blood supply during an emergency such as road accident can be extremely challenging given the biological nature of blood and concern for blood safety. It requires a close coordination among stakeholders so that adequate safe blood and blood products are supplied in time to save lives. The participants were called upon to deliberate on the challenges of massive transfusion in accidents and trauma and come out with standard protocols to meet these challenges.
This statement was made yesterday at Hennessy Park Hotel, Ebène, by the Minister of Health and Quality of Life, Mr A. Gayan, at the opening ceremony of a workshop organised in the context of the World Blood Donor Day 2016. Mr N. Bodha, Minister of Public Infrastructure and Land Transport, was also present on that occasion.
During his speech Minister of Health recalled that one area of healthcare in which blood transfusion plays a major role in the area of acute trauma, the most common form of which these days is road traffic accidents. It is apposite that road safety is being treated not only as a transportation issue, but as a major public health issue, he said
According to statistics there were 11.6 road deaths per 100 000 population in 2015. Since the beginning of 2016, already 55 people have lost their lives in road traffic crashes and many more people are ending up disabled.
Minister Gayan underscored that the health sector is at the receiving end of road traffic crashes and contributes much not only through the care of victims of road traffic accidents but also through awareness campaigns in the community on the dangers of alcohol and other substance abuse. .
He gave the assurance that utmost precautions are taken by the Blood Transfusion Service in testing for infections like HIV and Hepatitis viruses. And that all doubtful blood units in a screening tests are discarded irrespective of the results of confirmatory testing.
Thus in 2015, a total of 818 units were discarded due to the reasons of reactivity in Transfusion Transmitted Infection screening. Of these 165 units were discarded due to HIV reactivity, 308 for Hepatitis C, 94 for Hepatitis B and 251 for Syphilis reactivity. The confirmed positive cases were only 13 HIV, 106 Hepatitis C, 41 Hepatitis B and 131 syphilis, with a total of 291 confirmed cases.
In a bid to further reduce the window period of infections, the Ministry of Health and Quality of Life is in the process of acquiring latest NAT (Nucleic Acid Testing) equipment, which will place the National Blood Transfusion Service of Mauritius at par with similar services in the developed world. A project for extension of current Blood Transfusion Service building is also underway to provide more space to accommodate new activities.
The theme of the workshop is "Blood Transfusion Support in Acute Trauma". Blood supply during an emergency such as road accident can be extremely challenging given the biological nature of blood and concern for blood safety. It requires a close coordination among stakeholders so that adequate safe blood and blood products are supplied in time to save lives. The participants were called upon to deliberate on the challenges of massive transfusion in accidents and trauma and come out with standard protocols to meet these challenges.
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