Bhubaneswar: HIV tested blood cost 2 times more

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HIV tested blood bottles cost 2 times more

Bhubaneswar: The price of 200mg RBC blood bottles that

earlier used to cost around Rs.140 has soared as high

as Rs.290. This sudden rise in the price of blood

bottles has created resentment among the people, who

are unable to afford blood bottles at the time of

emergency. The Blood Bank authorities have explained

that the rise in cost is due to the HIV testing of

blood.

As per the directives of the Centre, supply of blood

without HIV testing has been prohibited. For the HIV

testing of the blood, National AIDS Control

Organization (NACO) used to provide AIDS kit for HIV

testing. But these kits are out of stock for the last

2 weeks. Though the AIDS cell of the state govt. has

been informed about the matter, no steps have been

taken so far. As a result, the chemicals required for

the testing is being purchased from the open market.

Hence, Rs.150 extra is being charged on a single

bottle, says Dr Debasis Mishra of Blood Bank. He has

assured that as soon as the kits will be provided by

NACO, the bottles will be available at the original

price of Rs.140.

When asked about the irregularities in the supply of

AIDS kits, joint director of State AIDS Cell (SAC) Dr

PN Swamy assured that things would again come back to

normalcy. He informed that the kits are being provided

by NACO basing on the demands of the previous year.

But since, in certain Blood Banks, the demands went up

suddenly, the kits became out of stock before the

deadline. Swamy said, if NACO delays in supplying the

kits, SAC would chalk out other alternatives.

According to him, the ELISA kits supplied by NACO is

being misutilized. With the help of this kit, 96 blood

samples can be tested at a time. But in most of the

blood banks, ELISA kits are being used to test only

5-6 blood samples. Once opened, the utility of the kit

is reduced to a great extent. So, keeping this in

view, the SAC has asked NACO to provide RAPID kits

through which, only one blood sample can be tested at

a time.

dharitri:oriya daily dated on 31 jan,2002

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s. c. mohapatra

E-mail: <scmours@...>

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