Project Goals

1. To help ensure a safe blood supply to the people of Ahmedabad.

2. To protect commercial blood donors from HIV infection through unsterile equipment and procedures at the blood collection centres, and through other risk behaviours such as unprotected sexual intercourse.

3. To protect the personnel working in blood collection centres from accidental infection with HIV in the course of their work.

Project Activities

The plan that SIRMCE developed for the GAP consisted of 5 sets of activities:

1. The education of commercial blood donors about safe blood donating and how to practice safer sex.

2. The voluntary testing of commercial blood donors for HIV infection, accompanied by pre- and post-test counseling.

3. Helping commercial blood donors to find alternative income generating opportunities.

4. Upgrading the existing infection prevention guidelines in commercial blood collecting centres.

5. Educating the staff at blood collection centres about the possibility of accidental transmission.

Dr Radium D. Bhattacharya is Project Manager of the Gujarat AIDS Prevention Unit (GAP) and President of SIRMCE (India Group), Ahmedabad, India. This case was written by Radium Bhattacharya, Jenny Huddart, Donna Bjerregaard and Glen Williams for the purpose of classroom discussion to assist members of nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) to explore the programmatic and organisational issues that they may face in implementing HIV/AIDS prevention and service delivery interventions. It is not intended to illustrate good or bad practices, nor as an evaluation of the organisation described.