The Hindu : Taluks to get blood banks

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 16, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore

Taluks to get blood banks

By Our Special Correspondent

Bangalore March 15. The State Government has decided to open blood banks/transfusion centres in all taluk headquarters to deal with the increasing demand for blood, largely due to the spread of AIDS and other serious ailments.

The Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Kagodu Thimmappa, who chaired a high-level meeting on AIDS and the functioning of blood banks here today, told presspersons that at present the blood banks were located at the district headquarters and they were unable to cope with the demand. Further, there were no facilities to store blood in the taluk headquarters. There were 120 blood banks in the State at present, and a large number of them were run by private hospitals.

The spread of AIDS was reported from 17 districts of the State and there were 1,671 patients with full-blown AIDS and around 16,075 patients afflicted by HIV. The total number of patients could be higher since there were many who had concealed their ailment. The highest number of patients was in Koppal and the least in Kodagu. There were 20 non-governmental organisations working in the field of AIDS, and the Government would like to encourage and assist at least one of them in every district.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Southern States

Stories in this Section

Winners of general knowledge exam.

Syntax ties up with Spider Group

Taluks to get blood banks