2,760 licensed blood banks in India

According to the data released by the National Health Profile by the Health Ministry, India is now reported to have a total of 2,760 licensed blood banks.

While the state of Tamil Nadu, figure standing at 304, has the highest number, the proportion of blood banks in the state is bent more towards the private service. Out of the total blood banks in Tamil Nadu 181 are in private sectors and the rest 96 are run by the state.

Maharashtra is second in the order with 297 blood banks followed closely by the state of Uttar Pradesh standing at 240.

India's northeastern states have the lowest number of blood banks with Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram and Manipur having 76, 6, 10 and 5 blood banks respectively, the data shows.

Among the total number of licensed blood banks in India, 1,564 are run privately and 981 by the Government, showed the data released on Tuesday.

Delhi along with nearby states like Uttar Pradesh and Punjab for that matter, are dealing with an ongoing crisis of shortage of platelets because of rise in dengue fever cases.

As reported by the MD team earlier, the skewed up ratio in favour of more number of private blood banks leads to a chaotic supply and demand situation like in case of recent crisis of dengue in Delhi where many people have turned to the private blood blanks to treat their depleting platelet counts.  With the demand for platelet count rising, private blood banks in Delhi are facing problems to meet the exceeded demand as a result; it is becoming difficult for authorities to regulate the prices of platelets in correspondence with monitoring the sufficient availability in the blood banks.