Pune: The surge in cases of dengue and chikungunya is leading to an increased demand for platelets at blood banks and hospitals . Some blood banks have reported a 35% rise in demand as compared to last year. Ram Bangad from Raktache Naate Trust said, “Every year, the demand for platelets goes up when monsoon recedes.
The current one is definitely higher compared to last year. Donation camps have come to a halt owing to the festive season. We urge people and companies to come forward and donate blood.
” Dr Yellapa Jadhav, medical superintendent, Sassoon hospital, said, “Increased demand for platelets and decrease in blood donations have caused shortage of platelets in our blood bank.” Atul Kulkarni of Jan Kalyan Bank said, “The number of blood donation camps usually reduces during monsoon. Also, platelets cannot be stored for over five days.
The process of extracting platelets from the blood of a donor takes 2.5 hours.” Doctors said not every dengue patient needed platelet transfusion.
Dr Ameet Dravid, an infectious diseases expert, said, “Only if a patient is hospitalised and becomes critical would s/he require platelets. As of now, all tertiary care hospital beds are occupied by dengue and chikungunya patients.” tnn We also published the following articles recently 200 students donate blood to match teachers feat Chaitanya Sanghvi, a professor at LD College of Engineering, achieved his 200th blood donation milestone on Teachers' Day.
To honor this achievement,.