Signaling a major boost to the Haemovigilance Programme of India (HvPI), the national co-ordination centre of the programme, National Institute of Biologicals (NIB) has apprised the General Assembly of International Haemovigilance Network (IHN) of the growth of HvPI in India. India is one of the member countries from amongst the 33 member countries dedicated towards the concept of haemovigilance towards blood safety.

Haemovigilance is a set of surveillance procedures covering the entire blood transfusion chain intended to collect and assess information on unexpected or undesirable effects resulting from the therapeutic use of blood components, and to prevent their occurrence or recurrence.

With 207 centres located in healthcare institutions and blood banks registered under the programme, NIB apprised IHN about the modalities of collecting data on blood transfusion related adverse reactions through a specialised software and the reach of the programme by training blood banks to report data. The data has been reported by the blood banks on voluntary basis by offering training through 22 Continuing Medical Education (CME) programmes in different regions of the country.

More than 2200 blood transfusion related adverse reactions have been reported till date through a transfusion reaction reporting form (TRRF) for haemovigilance. Haemovigilance is aimed at keeping details pertaining to collection, investigation, its analysis and transfusion of blood or blood components. It also documents adverse reactions to recipients and the people handling the vital fluid.

The programme has till date trained over 4000 participants through the CMEs. During CMEs, hands on training on Haemo-Vigil software was imparted to the participants with reference to uplinking Haemovigilance Data in transfusion reaction reporting form (TRRF) via Haemo-Vigil software.

Having started with a budgetary allocation of Rs. 29 crore under the 12th Five Year Plan at the national level in December 2010, HvPI will be propagated in a phased manner in Maharashtra covering 200 blood banks in the initial phase out of the total 303 blood banks and 3 cord blood banks.

“Blood banks staff have not been reporting adverse reactions due to blood transfusion out of the fear of being penalised. Awareness about the reporting modalities and process will help blood banks to ensure blood quality and patient safety," says an official associated with the development.

HvPI aims to identify trends in adverse reactions and events, thereby to form transfusion policy, target areas for improvement in practice, stimulate research, raise awareness of transfusion hazards, give an early warning of new complications to improve safety of transfusion for patients.

NIB is an autonomous institution under the Union health ministry which ensures quality of biologicals and vaccines in the country available through domestic manufacturers or imports. HvPI at the national level was launched by NIB and is serving as the national co-ordinating centre (NCC) in 90 medical institutions within the country to track adverse reactions associated with blood transfusion and blood product administration.