Blood demand rises as dengue worsens

Blood demand rises as dengue worsens

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The severe dengue fever outbreak in the capital has increased the
demand for blood by 200 percent since last month, said an
Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) official.

PMI Jakarta blood bank division head Yudi Artini said on
Friday that since early February, the demand for blood reached an
average 300 blood pouches per day. Last month's average was 100
pouches daily.

"Most hospitals across the city that made requests for blood
to PMI Jakarta said the blood would be given to dengue fever
patients," she told The Jakarta Post, adding that state-run Cipto
Mangunkusumo General Hospital had the highest order, followed by
a number of city-run hospitals.

A dengue fever patient needs a transfusion of blood enriched
with thrombocyte -- small nucleated blood cells that initiates
the process of clotting -- to stem hemorrhaging from the disease.

To meet the increasing demand, PMI Jakarta has been asking
families of dengue fever patients to donate their blood to
replenish the PMI's stock.

"This way, it is unlikely that we will run out of (blood)
supply," said Yudi.

She said the increasing demand was understandable, given that
an adult with dengue fever needed 10 pouches of blood while a
child needed five.

The government has officially declared the dengue fever
outbreak as "extraordinary", meaning that extra measures are
needed to contain the disease.

At least 195 people have died from dengue fever nationwide and
10,140 others have been infected as of Friday. On Thursday, the
figures were 188 and 9,365, respectively.

In Jakarta alone, 38 have died from the disease while 1,200
others have been admitted to a number of hospitals since the
outbreak started, the city health agency reported.

The World Health Organization said that dengue fever, which is
transmitted by aedes aegypti mosquitoes, peaked in five-year
cycles and the current outbreak has come at the peak of this
cycle.

The health agency recorded 14,071 cases in the city last year,
slightly lower than the 15,360 cases in 1998.

PMI Jakarta workers called on concerned citizens to help
dengue fever patients by donating blood.

NOTE: Prospective donors can contact PMI Jakarta at (021) 327
711/390 6666/390 9259 for further information.