Lecture on blood transfusion transmitted infections

LUCKNOW: The education foundation of the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) organised a public lecture on `Blood transfusion transmitted infections' on Friday.
Delivering the lecture, assistant professor, transfusion medicine, Dr Anupam Verma stressed on the need for safe blood transfusion. He said that the people wanted to know all about transfusion transmitted infections but were afraid to ask.
"Owing to increased safety in acquiring and storage of blood the risk of acquiring an infectious disease from a blood transfusion is lower then ever before,'' He said.However, viral infections like HIV, Hepatitis B and C viruses, bacterial and parasitic infections can rarely be transmitted through transfusions, Dr Verma added.
He said that the greatest threat is donation by sero-negative donors during the window period between initial infection and detectable sero-conversion.
According to an estimate, annually, unsafe transfusions result in 10,000 new HIV infections. Dr Anupam stressed on the need for rational use of blood by clinicians and promoting voluntary blood donations which is low in India. The lecture was later followed by an interesting question and answer session.