Citing this example Dr Sudeep Gupta, an oncologist at the Institute Rotary Cancer Hospital (IRCH), AIIMS said that irradiation of blood to eliminate white blood cells in donor blood can prevent GVHD. But irradiation was a neglected area. Dr Gupta was one of the participants at a meet on blood irradiation (elimination of white blood cells by Gamma rays). Radiologists and oncologists from various parts of the country participated.

The meet, held at AIIMS last week, aimed to generate awareness about the need to filter out leucocytes (one of the components of the white blood cells) from the blood to be transfused. The reason being that leucocytes of the donor's blood multiply in the body of the patient, destroying the cells in the recipient's body.

Such GVHD-related deaths can occur after bone marrow transplant, in neo-natal transfusions, if the blood is received from relatives and in all immuno-deficient cases except HIV, said Dr Gupta. Transfusion deaths due to GVHD is also seen in patients suffering from leukaemia as well as in the early days of recovery from a cardiac surgery.

Post-transfusion deaths due to GVHD rarely get recorded as these are not diagnosed most of the time, said Dr M.M. Rehani, radiologist in the IRCH. The white blood cells in the donor's blood can also harm the patient by causing alo-immunisation (rejection of foreign blood), according to Dr Sonia Nityanand, radiologist from Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Medical Institute in Lucknow. This condition, she said, was the opposite of GVHD. It is the white blood cells in the patient which react here against the donor blood. While irradiation can prevent GVHD, proper filtration of blood to keep out white cells can prevent alo-immunisation, she said.

Rehani said that IRCH, which installed the Gama ray machine last year, irradiates 50 bags of blood per day. Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, and Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Medical Institute, Lucknow, are the only other hospitals which have this machine, he said. But as awareness increases, more hospitals would go for it, he added. Rehani said the public needs to know more about the high risk groups which can develop these conditions after transfusion.