Daily Times

Just when one thinks the country has sunk to new lows of ignorance and negligence, something or the other crops up to keep us amazed at just how vile and tragic the situation really is for the common citizens of Pakistan. Heart breaking news reports are emerging about some 11 children suffering from thalassaemia being infected with the killer disease HIV because of the use of tainted blood for blood transfusions. These children’s condition requires sufferers to get regular blood transfusions, which makes the whole situation even more of an abomination. If these reports are true, these children, aged between five and 16, will now have to deal with two life-threatening diseases. This is the state of our healthcare system and such is our regard for human life. Reports have also suggested that those suffering from thalassaemia are at increased risk of contracting diseases the like of Hepatitis B and C as well as HIV from the regular blood transfusions they must receive because of the prevalence of inadequately screened blood. Almost 80 percent of thalassaemia patients have reportedly contracted Hepatitis because of their blood transfusions. Whilst there are still some conflicting reports about these 11 children being infected with HIV, the whole incident has highlighted the fact that there are huge gaping holes in the procedures required to ensure that patients receive properly screened blood. These are precious human lives, already facing misery because of their condition, and look how we take care of them.

Our healthcare system is in a shoddy mess. We have failed to tackle the rapid emergence of polio, we seem ill-prepared to confront the looming threat of Ebola that is just a plane ride away, and now we have proved that we cannot even complete the simple procedural task of screening blood before injecting it into a patient. Just how do we hope to remedy this rot? There is a big problem of private blood banks supplying blood to hospitals. Healthcare centres more often than not have no way to check the purity of the blood sold to them, putting patients at grave risk. It is advised that hospitals maintain their own stores of blood, limiting their need to depend on unreliable outside sources. Someone needs to be taken to task about the shameful state in which our healthcare system resides. The last thing people need is to think twice before seeking treatment. *