HvPI expands base with 31 more centres for blood transfusion reaction reporting

PSM News /

December, 2015

Aimed at raising awareness about blood transfusion hazards in blood banks across the country, Haemovigilance Programme of India (HvPI) has added 31 more centres for reporting blood transfusion related adverse reactions.
With this, the HvPI programme has also been able to generate 3098 blood transfusion related adverse reaction reports till date through its total 238 centres across the country. This comes close on the heels of Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) asking the State Drug Controllers (DCs) to direct all licensed blood banks for uplinking transfusion adverse reactions with National Institute of Biologicals (NIB) under the HvPI. There are in total 2760 licensed blood banks in the country which will be covered under the programme. 

Launched on December 10, 2012 by NIB, HvPI earlier had 207 centres covering blood banks, medical colleges, government and private hospitals across the country. NIB is an autonomous institution under the Union health ministry which ensures quality of biologicals and vaccines in the country available through domestic manufacturers or imports.

As a part of the programme, data in transfusion reaction reporting form (TRRF) from various centres is being collected through a software, Haemo-Vigil, indigenously developed by IT division of NIB.

Through this reporting system, HvPI will help in identifying trends in adverse reactions and events, thereby to also form transfusion policy. This will help Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) to take safety related regulatory decisions in blood safety. HvPI will ensure that traceability of events is done through proper documentation. This will lead to effective recommendations to be accepted and acted upon as also through defining systematic documentation process. 

The reporting system deployed under HvPI is confidential, systems oriented and responsive. The identities of the patient, reporter and institution are never revealed to third party going by the clause for confidentiality. It is therefore independent of any authority. NIB/Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC) are the co-ordinating centres between the reporters and regulators.

To recognize underlying systems causes with the help of a Haemovigilance Advisory Committee (HAC), reports are evaluated by experts who understand the clinical circumstances. Such information is also key to introduce required changes in the applicable policies, improve standards, systems, processes and assist in the formulation of guidelines.