Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2015-12-09

Upgrading the National Blood Transfusion Service of Sri Lanka with State of the Art Technology giving special emphasis to Northern and Eastern Provinces

- National Blood Transfusion Service consists of 18 cluster centres and 93 peripheral blood banks attached to the major hospitals in Sri Lanka. A project is already in operation to improve its services to suit the international standards. The work of that project has almost been completed and the proposal made by Hon. (Dr.) Rajitha Senaratne, the Minister of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine, to establish the following facilities which were not included in the original project plan, was approved by the Cabinet:

* construction of a special laboratory for the Nucleic Acid Testing (NAT) to prevent transfusion transmissible infections such as HIV and Hepatitis.

* construction of a special laboratory equipped with highly technological devises to perform the Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) Testing essentially required for the transplantations of Kidney and Bone marrow.

* construction of a clean room to utilize stem cell transplantation and prepare primary blood cells required for the treatment of Leukemia and other blood related disorders.

* establishment of a Cord Blood Bank.