Bhubaneswar: With the inclusion of Nucleic Amplification Acid Test-Polymers Chain Reaction (NAT-PCR) in selected government hospitals in Odisha, double checking of donated blood samples against fatal infections has now become possible.
A total of six hospitals in the state have started offering the advanced testing which can detect infections of HIV, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C which, in many cases, could not be detected in the initial days of infection through conventional testing methods like ELISA.
The hospitals equipped with this facility are MKCG Medical College (Berhampur), Capital Hospital (Bhubaneswar), SCB Medical College (Cuttack), VIMSAR (Burla) and two others.
Odisha has a total of 57 blood banks being managed by Red Cross and Odisha government. Medical experts claim that the advanced facility can play a key role in better scrutiny of blood bank samples.
“Several advanced countries in the world are using this technology. The system can help us in protecting more lives with better scrutiny of the blood samples used in blood transfusions,” said Dr Debashis Mishra, Director, Blood Bank, Capital Hospital.
State government has collaborated with Swiss firm ‘Roche Diagnostics’, India to introduce the system of advanced testing of blood samples. One out of every 200 units of blood tested in the state has infected blood (HIV or Hepatitis B or Hepatitis C). Of these, Ganjam district has a maximum of one unit of infected blood from 92 units.