National meet on Blood transfusion begins in Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad, Nov 10 (UNI) Around 700 delegates, including 30 from abroad, are expected to attend the three-day National Conference of Indian Society of Blood Transfusion and Immunohaematology (ISBTI), that gets underway here today.

Giving details about the meet, Dr Nabajyoti Choudhury, organising secretary, ISBTI said it aims to promote the mandate of voluntary blood donation and to enhance the technical skills of the scientific workers.

''It also brings together scientific workers, blood donor motivators, administrators, policy makers and general public on a common platform, so that overall developments can be achieved in that part of the country,'' he told mediapersons here.

About 30 foreign speakers from 17 different countries and more than 60 Indian speakers will deliver lectures, and participate in seminars and discussions on safe blood supply and its various components during the meet.

''It is quite heartening to note that Gujarat is leading in the activity of voluntary blood donation where about 65 per cent of the total blood collection is through the voluntary blood donors.

The balance 35 per cent of blood is collected through replacement made by patient's relatives. It is on it's way to achieve the target of 100 per cent voluntary blood donation by 2008.'' ''It is imperative to supply adequate blood and its components, which is safe in all respects. HIV, as we all know, is the most dreaded disease, which can be spread by unsafe blood transfusion. We will spend considerable time during the conference to debate on how best we can tackle the issue of supplying the safest possible blood to the needy patients'' he added.

ISBTI organises National Conference every year in different parts of the country. The theme of the conference this year is 'Transfusion and Quality' and it has been named 'TransQ 2006'.

During the meet, three ISBTI Travel Fellowships will be awarded for the first time, each to the most deserving young scientists, post-graduate students (Transfusion Medicine) and technologists.

These would be selected from the abstracts submitted by them.

An International Journal named 'Asian Journal of Transfusion Science' will be released on this occasion.

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