Karnataka's first plasma bank takes measures to prevent touts like in Delhi

The plasma bank at HCG Hospital that was inaugurated on Tuesday has put in special safeguards to avoid a Delhi-like situation where touts and middlemen exploited patients who needed plasma for money. An online registry to place requests for plasma transfusion has been created that will prioritise critical and severe patients so that no black market is created, wherein touts get involved.

Dr Vishal Rao who is handling the operations of the plasma bank told DH, "The government is connecting us with potential plasma donors via the BBMP. The Palike themselves are contacting recovered patients saying whoever are interested can come forward and donate. Every single communication has to be vetted by the state government because we know what happened in Delhi. There was black marketing, data leak and it was a mess."

In such a setting, the precautions to be taken for data confidentiality is having a proper SOP in place. "A secure server is maintained with very limited access and each of the three volunteers contacting the patient currently signs a non-disclosure agreement. We have set up a Karnataka Plasma Council, which is a core group of clinicians who would replicate this across all institutes," he said.

"There is no chance for middlemen to get into the system as it is a fully locked closed system. There are 40 blood banks in the state that have plasmapheresis machines but only four have licence to do plasmapheresis. From storing to freezing plasma, everything has a protocol," he added. As on Friday, 611 patients are recuperating in the ICUs of the state, with 362 from Bengaluru alone. The city now has 10,072 total recoveries and the state 31,347.

"Plasma is an orphan child. There is no pharma company backing plasma therapy like the life-saving drug Remdesvir is backed by pharma companies. We are setting up a war room to give it to patients who need it on a real-time basis. We have got requests from Shifa Hospital, Excelcare Hospital, Sakra Hospital, and Fortis Hospital.

But we need a blood group match between the patient and the donor. Even a person from Hyderabad was all set to airlift the plasma but finally got it in his city itself," he said. As on July 23, there were 130 donors registered and 15 had donated plasma. Out of 15 units of plasma, eight have been administered to patients and five have recovered.