PIL In HC For Modern Blood Testing System

Cuttack, 12 Feb 2018: A public interest litigation has sought Orissa High Court's intervention to introduce Nucleic Acid Testing-Polymerase Chain Reaction (NAT-PCR) blood testing facility at all blood banks in the state.

A division bench of Chief Justice Vineet Saran and Justice B.R. Sarangi has posted the matter to February 15 for hearing along with the government's reply.

Medical experts believe that NAT-PCR results in early detection of infection in the donor's blood and reduces the window period for viruses to take effect over the widely-used Enzyme-linked Immuno Sorbent Assay (ELISA).

Window period is the duration in which the infection is present in the donor's blood. However, it is difficult to detect by screening techniques. Besides, the NAT-PCR facility significantly decreases the chances of infected blood being transfused into other patients.

There are 56 blood banks in the state and the government has introduced the facility in six - two each in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar and one each in Berhampur and Burla - since June 2016.

The rest of the blood banks use the traditional Enzyme-linked Immuno Sorbent Assay (ELISA) to detect viruses in blood before transfusing the same into patients.

Bhubaneswar resident Amit Abhijit Samal filed the petition seeking the court's direction to introduce the facility in all blood banks on grounds that it enabled early detection of diseases such as HIV 1 and HIV 2, Hepatitis B and C-infected blood compared to ELISA.

While seeking reply when the petition had come up on February 6, the bench issued notices to the health secretary to file a reply.

The petitioner expressed concern that continuing with ELISA exposed patients to the threat of infected blood going unnoticed and being passed on to patients as it was less accurate.The Telegraph