Security and health of the blood acquired from blood donors in accordance with international standards.
"We are cooperating with Novartis Diagnostik Ltd (HK) and Medquest to scientifically improve the accuracy of disease detection in terms of blood security by implementing nucleic acid tests," PMI Chairman Jusuf Kalla said here Saturday.
Kalla, a former vice-president, made the statement after signing the cooperation agreements on nucleic acid test with Novartis Diagnostic (HK) Limited and Medquest at a ceremony here.
He said PMI was striving always to improve the quality of blood obtained from donors so that the blood would have the levels of security and health as prescribed by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Kalla said at least 1.0-1.5 percent of the 4.8 million pouches of donated blood PMI was receiving carried diseases so that they were rejected by PMI Thus, assistance from institutions whose expertise is in blood detection would be very useful.
PMI, he added, will not only strive to improve on the supply side of the service in Indonesia, but increase the level of blood security as well.
In the same occasion, Aprilianto, secretary of Malang-chapter PMI, said that there were 355 bags of blood in his service areas that had been identified being infested with infectious diseases and therefore disposed of. "We knew them after laboratory tests conducted by PMI personnel."
Aprilianto said the diseases discovered in the blood were hepatitis, HIV/AIDS, syphilis and other venereal diseases. "Should those bloods have been transfused to patients, they would certainly endanger the lives of the patients," he said.(*)
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
