Dengue rising, but TS hospitals lack critical single-donor platelets

Government hospitals do not have single-donor platelets that are required by patients suffering from severe cases of dengue as a result of which people are opting for treatment at private hospitals.

Single-donor platelets are harvested from a single donor. This process of harvesting the platelets requires equipment that churns the donor blood. Government blood banks do not have this equipment at present. Senior health officials say that it is on their list of requirements, and it will be procured by the end of the year.

Dr Vijay Anand, a senior paediatrician, said, “The advantage of single-donor platelets is that they help restore the platelet counts of patients much faster than random donor platelets.”

Random donor platelets are easily available at blood banks. They are platelets that have been pooled from the blood of multiple donors. Dr Anand says that single-donor platelets are not required by all patients, some of them can be treated with random-donor platelets.

Single-donor platelets are only required by patients in whom the disease has reached a severe state, causing them to start haemorrhaging. “Only those who are not recovering despite receiving one or two blood transfusions are given this treatment,” Dr Anand said.

Government hospitals often receive patients who are at a critical stage.

A senior government doctor says, “When a patient is not able to pay for a private hospital, he or she is transferred to a government hospital. Some patients are cured by random-donor platelets, but a small percentage require single-donor platelets to be saved. There is a need for such a system to be set up in government blood banks so that patients may be saved.”