Progress in Medical Sciences. 2021;
5(2):(68-109)
Covid-19 Pandemic and Its Impact on Blood Transfusion Services in India
Romesh Jain, Babita Raghuwanshi* and Rakesh Kumar
Abstract
The COVID-19 patient counts rapidly increasing in the whole world as well as in India and as per WHO report on
06 July 2021 with total 183,934,913 confirmed cases and 3,985,022 confirmed deaths. To prevent community
spread, Government of India has announced nationwide lockdown which also affect the blood transfusion
services and many small-scale lockdowns was announced by state government and local authority. SARS-CoV-2
pandemic is having an impact on blood supply. In order to maintain the chain of blood transfusion services
(i.e., from the collection of blood to the transfusion of patients) in this outbreak is a big challenge. It is also
important to know that how much we have learnt from the past pandemics and what extent we are prepared
for the current pandemic. The major challenge for blood transfusion services are donor recruitment and safety
of blood donors, blood bank staff as well as transfusion recipients. Blood transfusion services playing a vital
role in the management of COVID -19 patients. In this review article we will discuss the challenges of blood
transfusion services, our experience in the management of these challenges and role of convalescent plasma
therapy in the management of COVID- 19 patients.
