Lagos — The Lagos State Government has inaugurated a committee to regulate blood transfusion and adopt penalties for offenders. The move was necessitated due to rapid increase in HIV/AIDS infections and other diseases through blood transfusion.

The disclosure was made by a consultant hematologist and chairman of the committee, Dr. R. O. Olatunji, at a workshop on Safe Blood Donation organised by Safe Blood for Africa Foundation in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health in Lagos.

The committee which is under the supervision of the state ministry of health, comprises the chairman and eight other members.

According to the chairman, under the new law, transfusion of HIV infected blood for first offenders would attract a fine of N100,000 and two years imprisonment in case of an individual and N500,000 in case of a hospital.

Second time offenders and subsequent offences as stated by the law would attract a N500,000 and four years imprisonment in case of an individual and N2 million in case of a hospital.

He said at the workshop sponsored by President Bush's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) that a study by Lagos State Blood Transfusion Services (LSBTS), indicated that HIV prevalence in voluntary donors in its facilities was 2.39 per cent as against 6.13 per cent among hospital donors.

He said a study on prevalence of HIV among blood donors at Lagos Island General Hospital shows that in 2002, a total of 116, out of 5945 donors screened, tested positive to HIV as against 260 out of 5076 in 2001; 223 out of 5224 in 2000; 165 out of 4410 in 1999; 488 out of 4600 in 1998; 469 out of 4730 in 1997; out of 5392 in 1996 and 251 out of 5108 in 1995.

He explained that the studies show that voluntary donation is the best option for safer blood since the higher incidence of Transfusion Transmissible Infection (ITT's) are found among commercial donors usually drug users and social miscreants. Olatunji condemned a situation where the National Blood Transfusion Policy launched in April 2000 and reviewed in November 2002, is yet to be operational.

Programme Manager for Safe Blood for Africa (Nigeria), Mrs. Kemi Morris, blamed the high incidence of ITT's in Nigeria on lack of co-ordination in the blood transfusion practice; lack of set guidelines on blood transfusion practice; no distant quality control practice and non adherence to standards.

These she said, have led to proliferation of private blood banks; reckless transfusion of blood; abnormally high request for blood by clinics and inappropriate use of blood.

Functions of the blood committee include, setting up sub committees and bodies of experts from both the private and public sectors to carry out specific functions on its behalf, supervise and regulate all blood transfusion services in the state, register, accredit and regulate all blood transfusion facilities and ensure the development of quality control and assurance on all blood transfusion activities.

Others include, to identify training needs and private modalities to satisfy them, promote research into all aspects of blood transfusion and publish information relating to blood transfusion.