Date:18/10/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/10/18/stories/2008101853090300.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Cell separator inaugurated

Staff Reporter

Collector Gopalakrishna Dwivedi looking at the functioning of the cell separator machine after inaugurating it at Indian Red Cross Society blood bank at Kakinada on Friday.

Kakinada: A cell separator (single donor platelets) machine costing Rs 25 lakh, was inaugurated at the Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS)’s blood bank here on Friday by Collector Gopalakrishna Dwivedi. This equipment enables collection of higher number of platelets from blood donated by a single person instead of sourcing the same from multiple donors.

On the occasion, Mr. Dwivedi suggested to the IRCS staff to first spread awareness about this modern equipment among doctors and than among the donors. He said the blood bank of Nellore branch of IRCS was the only one which has the cell separator apart from the newly installed one in Kakinada, through which platelets could be separated from the blood for just Rs 9,000.

The Collector recalled that Governor N.D Tiwari had dedicated for the people a blood component processing unit costing nearly Rs 14 lakh, at the IRCS, Kakinada last year. This machine segregates the various components of blood viz. red cells (erythrocytes), white cells (leukocytes), platelets (thrombocytes) and plasma, thus enabling donation of any one of them separately depending on the requirement.

Joint Collector K Sasidhar, Government General Hospital superintendent M.B.R. Sarma, IRCS district secretary P Durga Raju and others were present.