Blood screening: HC asks Delhi govt to file detailed affidavit

Delhi High Court has asked the city government to file a detailed affidavit on a petition challenging proposed implementation of pool testing method in blood banks, in which blood samples of donors are screened in batches and not individually.
A bench of Acting Chief Justice B D Ahmed and Justice Vibhu Bakhru directed the Delhi government and its department of Health and Family Welfare to file the affidavit by next week, also informing it why it proposes to go for pool testing.
The court's order came on a plea by advocate Jewesh Manuja who sought directions to the government to conduct Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing (NAT) of the blood of each donor separately (IDT), instead of screening it in batches under the pool method, claiming that it compromises safety of those receiving blood transfusion.

Manuja also sought quashing of the government's March 14 proposal to invite bids from private firms for the responsibility of screening donated blood in its 10 blood banks, saying the companies have been asked to quote the price of either the pool testing method or IDT.
Till now, blood in these facilities is screened with ELISA test. However, the government is moving to adopt Nucleic acid testing (NAT)as it is said to be more effective as it reduces the risk of transfusion-transmitted viral infections (TTIs).
Manuja said in his plea that NAT is performed by two methods - Individual Donor Testing (IDT) and pooling method. In pooling method, instead of individually testing the blood, several samples of donated blood are pooled together in batches of 4, 6, 8, 16, etc and thereafter tested for infection. In IDT, each blood sample is individually tested.

"The action on the part of the government in inviting tenders permitting any method of testing (IDT or pool testing), compromising safety of blood transfusion receivers is whimsical, without any basis and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India," the petition filed through advocate, R Jawaharlal, said.