Shawdesh Desk:

Panicked relatives of dengue patients are stressed over collecting blood from the voluntary organisations, relatives, friends and others as an acute crisis of blood intensified in the wake of outbreak of the viral disease in Dhaka.

They, particularly, at different social media platforms and mobile based applications, urged the people for donating blood on an emergency basis.

Sheik Md Faisal, coordinator of Quantum Foundation, a voluntary organisation providing blood support for 19 years in city, said that all year-long demand for blood was higher than the supply but it became more acute with most health facilities in the city full of dengue patients.

He observed that an emergency situation has been prevailing as they were producing platelets for 90 to 95 patients now every day which was only 20 to 25 before the recent spike in number of dengue patients in the city.

He said that at present the relatives of some 600 to 700 patients a day were contacting with them asking for blood, but could only manage blood for 500 patients.

‘Donors are hard to come by,’ he said.

Voluntary blood matching organisations Sandhani and Badhan were facing similar crisis while hundreds of applications were being posted on social media pages of Blood Donation Bangladesh, Bloodman Foundation and Blood Friends.

Transfusion medicine department chairman of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Ayesha Khatun told New Age that demand for platelets concentrate was increasing day by day.

‘Average previous demand was 12 to 15, now it is 25 to30 units every day,’ she said.

Dengue patient Syed Mamunur Rahman, also physician, needed A negative blood platelet as dengue since the infection he has been experiencing a decrease in platelet at the rate of 13,000 per microliter of blood.

Later, his family members, friends and colleagues rushed to different hospitals, blood banks and social media platforms for donors.

‘We, after frantic effort to get the rare group A negative blood from different sources,’ said Kazi Rita, who is also campaigning for blood.

A physician of the transfusion medicine department of Dhaka Medical College Hospital said that requisition for blood increased by at least 10 per cent though most of the patients were trying to source blood from their family members or relatives.

The normal platelet count in human body is 150,000 to 350,000 per microlitre of blood but due to dengue it plunges to 10,000 causing the death of the patient.

The viral fever caused by the aedes mosquitoes has already spread across 49 other districts besides the capital where the number of dengue patients has crossed all records.

Physicians, however, said that the demand for blood was comparatively lower this year though the number of dengue infected patients was high.

They said, this year, most of the patients suffered from dengue shock syndrome while in the previous years, patients suffered from dengue hemorrhagic fever that required blood platelets.

‘Now the symptom of dengue patients is plasma leakage, or decrease in body fluid, that require rehydration,’ said a DMCH associate professor of medicine Robed Amin.

Sourcing blood platelets is comparatively more expensive than collecting blood as four bags of blood are needed to produce one bag of platelets.

Physicians however said that not all the dengue patients need blood but the relatives of the patients out panic usually rush for blood without consultation the physicians.

A female dengue patient’s platelets decreased to 16,000 on Sunday while she was admitted at Delta Medical College Hospital at Mirpur.

Family members of the patient became frantic for blood but couldn’t manage AB negative blood.

A relative Rasel finally managed to source the blood after resorting to different blood donation groups.

At least eight people died of dengue while at least 13,637 as of Monday people were infected by dengue this year, according to the Health Services.

But unofficial reports say the death figure rose to 41, including three doctors and two university students.

Blood donors said that other surgery patients who needed blood were facing the same crisis as people became extra-cautious about dengue and were constantly in search of blood.