“Everyone can donate blood but not everyone should,” says Dr Durenaz Jamal, an alumna* who is now serving as the director of the Sindh Blood Transfusion Authority, SBTA.
Often described as the ‘gift of life’, regular blood donations are essential for patients born with inherited diseases such as thalassemia and haemophilia.
Blood donations must also be arranged before surgeries and are a necessity for those undergoing treatment for serious road injuries, advanced cardiac disease, certain types of cancer and organ transplants. However, blood donations can also be dangerous if safety protocols are not followed.
The SBTA enforces regulations for blood banks across the province and was established by the Sindh Safe Blood Transfusion Act, 2017, which called for the development of a uniform policy across the province. Dr Jamal took over as the head of the SBTA shortly after the bill’s passage and was placed in charge of implementing the law across the province.
Dr Jamal played a key role in enacting standard operating processes in line with the World Health Organization’s guidelines. She also built the system’s capacity to handle blood, strengthened haemovigilance procedures covering the monitoring of blood donations and transfusions, introduced processes to maintain data on donations and transactions, and helped raise public awareness of the need to donate blood.
Dr Jamal has also played a crucial part in setting up four centralised, regional blood centres which can more efficiently and cost effectively deal with the needs of patients.
“It’s important that we use our blood stocks efficiently,” Dr Jamal said. “Only the blood portions required by the patient such as plasma, platelets or cell components should be used instead of the prevailing practice of only using whole blood.”
All blood banks in the province must be registered with the SBTA and today Dr Jamal and her team are monitoring the operations of over 180 institutions across the province. Together, they ensure that all blood is screened for infectious diseases, monitor safety and hygiene practices, and scrutinise the performance of blood banks against global standards.
“Safety is a top priority for us,” says Dr Jamal. “If we ever detect disease in a blood sample, we immediately inform the donor and connect him or her with local health authorities. We consider it our duty to help patients obtain access to counselling and proper healthcare.”
During the pandemic, her team is also helping coordinate clinical trials to evaluate the use of plasma therapy in treating severely ill COVID-19 patients. The trials are currently underway in partnership with public and private sector hospitals around the country.
* Dr Jamal graduated with a Master of Science in Health Policy and Management from AKU in 2017.
