Hyderabad: A blood bank was raided by the Drugs Control Administration (DCA) and blood components were seized from the establishment for selling the same without permission.
DCA officials raided ‘Asian Blood Centre’ (A Unit of Asian Health Foundation), at Dr AS Rao Nagar ‘X’ Roads, Medchal-Malkajgiri District, on April 19. The blood bank (blood centre) was permitted to collect, store, process, and distribute of ‘Whole Human Blood’ only, said the DCA.
The blood centre was not authorized to prepare and distribute blood components such as Single Donor Platelets, Packed RBC, Plasma, etc. During the raid, officials found that the blood bank was illegally preparing blood components, said V B Kamalasan Reddy, director general, DCA.
Single donor platelets are prepared through a process called ‘Plateletpheresis’. Asian Blood Centre does not have the capability to carry out the apheresis process, as the blood centre does not have equipment such as an ‘apheresis machine’ or a ‘Blood Cell Separator’, stated Reddy, in a press release.
During the raid, blood centre technician J. Ravi Kumar revealed that Single Donor Platelets are illegally procured from other blood banks (blood centres) and were being supplied to the patients in an unauthorized manner.
