The drug authorities have issued show cause notices to 42 blood banks in the western zone for violating laws under the Drugs & Cosmetics Act. The state drug authorities in the western zone and the western zone Central Drug Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) had jointly conducted inspections on 129 blood banks in the zone during April to December 2009. Licenses of 12 blood banks were recommended for cancellation for violation under Drugs & Cosmetics Act.
There are 550 blood banks in west zone of CDSCO that covers Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat, Daman & Diu, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh. Out of 177 blood banks in Maharashtra 104 were inspected, two out of 10 in Goa, seven out of 43 in Chhatisgarh, 15 out of 131 in Madhya Pradesh and one blood bank in Silvassa (Dadra & Nagar Haveli) were inspected during April to December 2009. Whereas during the financial year April 2008 to March 2009 only 29 blood banks were inspected in west zone of CDSCO.
Out of 12 blood banks against which license cancellation was recommended by CDSCO after inspection, eight are in Maharashtra, one in Goa, one in Chhatisgarh and two are in Madhya Pradesh. In all 38 blood banks in Madhya Pradesh and four in Maharashtra were served show cause notices for various violations.
According to norms, every blood bank license should be renewed every five years. Total 101 blood bank licenses were renewed after inspection in west zone of CDSCO – 85 in Maharashtra, one in Goa, five in Chhatisgarh, nine in Madhya Pradesh, one in Silvassa. After compliance verification, 12 blood banks licenses in Maharashtra, one in Chhatisgarh, four in Madhya Pradesh were renewed.
Recently, Union Health Ministry had issued directions to all the states to intensify the efforts to check the sale of tainted blood products. The ministry's efforts in this regard came after the reports of sale of tainted blood products in several states in the north, especially in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. In Uttar Pradesh, the drug authorities had unearthed several instances of blood banks selling spurious blood products in many places in the state.
In Rajasthan, the government constituted special teams to inspect all the nursing homes, hospitals, blood banks and diagnostic laboratories in the wake of reports of alleged use of tainted blood for transfusion in many patients in the state.