As the Chennai city was gearing up to deal with the menace of dengue, India’s first platelet donor helpline ‘7878782020’ was launched for the benefit of dengue patients.

The platelet donor helpline is an initiative by Godrej HIT, supported by Apollo Hospitals Group with an intent to build a base of platelet donors big enough to save lives. A release in Chennai said dengue patients face a decline in blood platelet count leading to internal bleeding and eventually death in extreme cases. Thus, this drop in platelet count requires quick platelet transfusion to save lives. However, platelets were not readily available as they could not be stored for more than five days.
While Chennai was coping with the dengue menace, this helpline has 1.25 lakh donors who were just a call away to donate platelets. In addition to Chennai, platelet donor helpline was also present in cities like Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad with a total of 1.25 lakh registered donors.

In Chennai, dengue patients or their relatives seeking platelets could call on the helpline and on receiving requests, registered donors were updated through calls and SMS. The platelet donor would then visit the patient directly at any hospital where he/she was admitted or the platelets were sent to the patient. They could also avail platelet transfusion at their nearest Apollo Hospital, the medical partner for the helpline, even if they were not admitted there.