What We Do
How is thalassemia treated?
Our facility for Thalassaemia patients is managed by experienced haematology, paediatric and oncology in day care units to adult and children in centre. We provide free transfusion, medications and counselling, having a capacity of 10 bed.
Blood transfusions could be a regular thing if you or your child has a blood disorder called beta thalassemia. The disease causes a drop in the amount of red blood cells you have. A transfusion gives you healthy red blood cells from a donor to make up for the ones you don’t have. Regular transfusions can help prevent beta thalassemia complications.
Beta thalassemia lowers your hemoglobin — a protein that helps red blood cells carry oxygen to your organs and tissues — and causes a drop in your red blood cell count.
The type of beta thalassemia you or your child has will help your doctor decide if you need blood transfusions. If you have the mildest form, beta thalassemia minor, you likely won’t need transfusions or any other treatment. For a type called beta thalassemia intermedia, you may need transfusions at certain times, like when you’re sick or before you have surgery.
If you have the most severe form, beta thalassemia major, you’ll need regular transfusions.
Your doctor will decide whether to start you or your child on blood transfusions based on your symptoms and hemoglobin level. You’ll often get transfusions when your blood hemoglobin level drops below 7 grams per deciliter (g/dL).
What Happens Before the Transfusion?
The blood you get has to be the right match or you could have a dangerous reaction to it. Blood comes in several types: A, B, AB, or O, which are either positive or negative. Blood types get their names based on which proteins are on the surface of the blood cells.
If you get the wrong type of blood, your immune system — your body’s defense against germs — could see it as dangerous and attack it. Some immune reactions can be serious. That’s why before your transfusion, your medical team will match you with the right blood type.
Another test checks your blood for other antibodies that could make your immune system react to the donated blood. Your medical team will carefully match you to your donor’s blood based on these antibodies.
What Happens During a Transfusion?
You or your child will get blood transfusions once every 2 to 4 weeks. You’ll visit a hospital or doctor’s office for the transfusions.
A doctor or nurse will put an IV into a vein in your arm with a needle. They’ll keep tabs on your heart rate, blood pressure, and other vital signs during the transfusion.
They’ll also check to make sure you don’t have a reaction. The whole transfusion takes between 1 and 4 hours.
What Are the Risks?
Getting a blood transfusion is safe, but there are a few possible risks involved.
INFECTIONS:
Health care professionals screen the blood used in transfusions carefully to prevent infections like HIV and hepatitis. The risk of getting HIV from a blood transfusion today is less than 1 in 1 million. The risk of hepatitis B is slightly higher, but you’ll get a hepatitis B vaccine to protect you before you start transfusions.
ALLERGIC REACTIONS:
Sometimes the immune system reacts to the transfusion. This can start right away or a few days later. Some reactions are more serious than others.
An allergic reaction is the most common type. It happens when your immune system sees proteins or other substances in the blood you receive as foreign and attacks them. Mild cases cause symptoms like hives and itching, which you can treat with an antihistamine.
IRON OVERLOAD:
The blood cells that you get in a transfusion have iron. Over time, iron can build up in your body to the point where it overloads organs like your heart and liver.
If this happens, you may need chelation therapy. It’s a treatment that uses pills or shots of medicine that bind to extra iron and remove it from your body.
DELAYED HEMOLYTIC REACTION:
This is when your body attacks the new blood cells over a period of days or weeks. The red blood cells slowly break apart. If you have this reaction, your doctor will give you special blood tests before your next transfusion to prevent it.
FEBRILE REACTION:
This happens when your body reacts to white blood cells in the donated blood. You’ll run a fever and you may have symptoms like headache, nausea, and chills. If you’ve had a febrile reaction in the past, your doctor can give you blood without the white blood cells next time.
Many thalassemia patients depend on blood transfusions to survive and thrive, and we are so grateful to each and every blood donor and to those who organize Blood Donation Drives.
Donating blood is one of the easiest ways to help save lives. In fact, each pint of blood donated can save up to three lives! All you have to do is make an appointment at your local blood bank.
To have an even greater impact, you can organize a blood drive and invite the community to help boost the local blood supply. Every 5 seconds, someone in the India needs a blood transfusion, but unfortunately there is often a great shortage of blood available. Blood drives help to alleviate these blood shortages by providing large quantities of blood in short amounts of time.
Blood banks make the process of hosting a blood drive easy. They will bring the medical personnel and necessary equipment. You just need to find a suitable location and invite as many people as you can to sign up. If you are planning a Blood Donation Drive, contact us by emailing contactus@llrfindia.org so we can share the event details with the community.
Why Donate Blood
- The most precious gift that one can give to another person is the gift of life i.e. blood. It is the essence of life.
- Your blood saves more than one life when it is separated into its components (red blood cells, plasma etc.).
- Blood is needed regularly for patients with diseases such as thalassemia and hemophilia, and also for the treatment of injuries after an accident, major surgeries, anemia, etc.
- It improves your health.
Benefits of Donating Blood
Less likely to suffer diseases
- Did you know that people who donate blood are 88% less likely to suffer a heart attack and 33% less likely to acquire any type of cardiovascular disease.
- When you donate blood, it removes 225 to 250 milligrams of iron from your body, hence reducing the risk of heart disease.
- Blood Centre performs numerous tests on the donated blood. Therefore, regular blood donation helps in shielding you from serious diseases.
Facts About Blood
- One unit of donated blood can save up to three lives.
- You can donate blood every three months. It only takes 48 hours for your body fluids to be completely replenished.
- Scientists have estimated the volume of blood in the human body to be eight percent of body weight.
- There are 100,000 miles of blood vessels in an adult human body.
- A red blood cell can make a complete circuit of your body in 30 seconds.
- White blood cells make up about 1% of your blood.
Statistics about Blood
- According to a 2012 World Health Organisation (WHO) report, only nine million units are collected annually, while the need is for 12 million units.
- Delhi NCR alone faces a shortage of 100,000 units per year.
- The shelf-life of donated blood is 35 to 42 days. There is a constant need to replenish stocks in our blood banks.
- Healthy donors are between the age of 18 to 65 years.
- Statistics show that there are 234 million major operations in India, 63 million trauma-induced surgeries, 31 million cancer-related procedures and 10 million pregnancy related complications which require blood transfusions.
Before You Donate
- Donating blood is a safe, simple, and rewarding experience that usually takes 30 minutes.
- To donate blood, find a blood bank near you using Nearby Blood Bank Search.
- Requirement before Blood Donation is that your weight should be at least 45 kgs, be at least 18 years old and be healthy in general.
If you have any particular health concerns then inform the blood bank at the time of blood donation.
Thalassemia is a genetic blood disorder. People with Thalassemia disease are not able to make enough haemoglobin, which causes severe anaemia. When there is not enough haemoglobin in the red blood cells, oxygen cannot get to all parts of the body. Organs then become starved for oxygen and are unable to function properly.
There are two forms of thalassemia. They are thalassemia minor and thalassemia major.
If a child is born from the parents having thalassemia minor (both of them) then it results into a thalassemia major, which is very critical for the child to survive. If a child survives for initial few years then its entire body blood is to be replaced regularly with new one. To avoid such situation, it is inevitable for the young generation to have “Thalassemia test” done before marriage. Even after marriage and before child planning this test can be done.
At present If you go for thalassemia test and you are found thalassemia minor then you can keep condition for Thalassemia check to opposite partner with whom you may have future marriage. And if you are not thalassemia minor then no need to worry about your partner and his thalassemia check.
- To make people aware of Thalassemia.
- To increase life expectancy and enhance the quality of life for those impacted by Thalassemia.
- To make a positive contribution to the world of Thalassemics by arranging regular blood transfusion and aggressive management of chronic iron overload.
- To eradicate Thalassemia from the society.
- To campaign for blood collection for Thalassemic patients.
- To counsel & educate Thalassemics, their families & doctors on the management of Thalassemia.
- To create better transfusion & treatment facilities.
- To collect funds, Equipment’s, medicines for underprivileged Thalassemic patients.
- To create awareness among public & facilitate screening and prevention programmes for control of Thalassemia.