How COVID-19 is endangering the lives of Thalassemia patients

At a time when the country is battling COVID-19 pandemic, people suffering from thalassemia are facing an acute shortage of blood in the blood banks across the country. Adding to this worry is that a lot of blood donation camps have been called off due to prevailing lockdowns and red zone areas in the major cities in the country.

The fear of contracting COVID-19 has kept the thalassemia patients as well as regular blood donors away from the hospitals in such times of crisis due to which the hospitals might face a shortage of blood in the coming days. These patients are also at risk of COVID-19 infection due to increased exposure in the crowded tertiary care hospitals, which can have a worse impact on the presence of co-morbidities.

The extended and unplanned lockdowns are affecting the movement of blood donors across the country, leading to a shortage in the availability of blood who are dependent on transfusion as a life-saving measure. Hospitals with thalassemia units are worst hit in the present times and will continue to face such issues as blood requirement might increase as pending surgeries might get scheduled in the coming weeks, putting an extra demand for blood and blood products thereby, putting thalassemia patients in a a difficult situation ahead.

With the entire focus on the prevention of COVID-19, the neglect in other areas may lead to greater health risks. Many smaller cities do not have blood transfusion centers whereas centers in many other states have been closed down. In addition to this, certain hospitals have been converted into COVID zones which are adding to the problem.

As the number of thalassemia patients is increasing in India, need for a prevention and control program is felt. With preventive health checks not being the norm in India, people suffering from thalassemia are unknowingly passing on this genetic disorder to their children. The need of the hour is to have a national policy on thalassemia which will help in not just creating awareness about the disease but also ensure strategies to prevent its spread, diagnosis, and treatment for all. Even though we have the highest number of thalassemia patients in South Asia, the promising treatment modalities like bone marrow transplant (BMT) and gene therapy have their own share of risks and shortcomings due to a lack of incentives and support for the research studies.

To save valuable lives, setting up of small or micro blood donation camps or mobile vans can be done following the social distancing norms in the areas of green zones across the country with the help of various welfare organizations. Making appeals through social media platforms to healthy people to come out in numbers and donate blood is one way to create an informed society.

Along with such challenges in the present scenario, carrier screening, pre-marital and pre-conception screening along with genetic counseling should be a mandatory public health initiative at the community and facility level under the guidelines of the National Health Mission. Due to extended lockdowns in the COVID-19 era, if such conditions prevail, the bigger risk will be the lack of availability of blood and resources rather than the virus for these patients.

The writer of this article is a Resident Doctor at Lady Hardinge Medical College, Delhi and National Co-ordinater Vichar Vibhag, AICC & incharge Delhi-NCR