DHAKA: The Muslim month of fasting Ramadan has led to an unexpected crisis in Bangladesh.

Muslims are not allowed to donate blood during their sunrise-to-sunset fasts. But most adherers have also stopped donating blood in the evenings fearing health problems, reports Xinhua.

As a result, hospitals and blood banks are facing an acute shortage of blood and blood products since the beginning of Ramadan in mid-October.

"The situation has been so bad in the last two weeks that hundreds of clients have had to return disappointed," said Shahana Jafar, director of the Bangladesh Red Crescent Blood Centre (BRCBC) here.

BRCBC normally keeps a daily reserve of 50 to 60 blood bags of 500 ml, but its current daily stock has dropped to just five bags.

Sandhani Dhaka Medical College unit, another voluntary blood donation organisation run by medical students, has collected only 20 blood bags during Ramadan compared to some 600 bags a month earlier.

The crisis has forced leading hospitals to reschedule major operations like open heart surgeries, brain surgeries, gall bladder surgeries and orthopaedic surgeries.

"For routine operations, we are asking patients' relatives to arrange blood in advance," said Nazrul Islam, director of the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases.

"But the real problem is emergency surgeries, which cannot be rescheduled."

The worst hit are thalassemia patients, who need a special kind of blood transfusion three times a week. Many such patients are now having transfusion only once a week, risking their survival.

Private blood banks, most of which are not recognised, have taken advantage of the situation and raised the price of a blood bag from Taka 1,000 ($17) to Taka 1,500 ($25).

Indo-Asian News Service