Why blood shortage hit Uganda’s hospitals

According to the World Health Organisation, anybody wanting to donate should first be screened for HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and syphilis. In Uganda, up to 10% of the blood is discarded annually due to infections. This too cuts off some people.

Fortunately, there are regular donors like Christopher Mukwaya. In an interview with the Independent on Jan.12, he said he started donating ten years ago giving birth to a child with sickle cell anemia – a condition that found him needing blood almost on a monthly basis.

“We would struggle looking for blood and I saw many children dying because they couldn’t be transfused. Then I realised I needed to thank God for the blood he gave me. My daughter is an O+ and I am an A+. I can’t donate to her but I know my blood saves someone out there,” he says. He recounts a night when his being a regular blood donor saved the whole children’s ward when he run to Nakasero with his card and was given a full box of blood even after the laboratory at Mulago had suffered a stock out. Mukwaya now donates thrice every year.

Mukwaya believes many Ugandans do not donate blood because they lack basic information, including why they need to donate, what’s likely to happen to them when their blood is drawn, and even where to go when they need to donate.

While Mukwaya’s point of people’s ignorance is rubbished by Mukundane who says Ugandans just have an `I don’t care attitude’, it was also pointed out in a value for money audit done on UBTS by the Auditor General (AG).

The AG found that UBTS was setting its blood collection targets the wrong way; according to the number of teams it has rather than the number of people they have to reach to get blood and that the public was unaware of the institutions’ activities.  The auditors also found that the institution was understating the country’s blood requirement needs by over 67% in addition to observing that UBTS was not employing common standards throughout its blood bank network and lacked a system for regulating deviations from standard procedures.

Basics about blood and donation

Uringtho says blood transfusion is an expensive venture that requires constant investment in maintenance. He explains that blood’s shelf life is 35 days but one has to maintain an appropriate cold chain of 2 to 6 degrees Celsius for it to stay safe. Beyond 6 degrees, it will become warm enabling the bacteria in it to multiply and below 2 degrees, the cells will be destroyed. In some cases, blood has a shorter shelf life. The platelets concentrates used by cancer patients, for example, must be stored under room temperature and can only last five days.

Uringtho gives facts about blood and donation

• While a man’s blood can be drawn every after three months, a woman can donate every after four months.
• There are four blood group types – O, A, B and AB whereby one’s blood group is determined by the genes they inherit from their parents.
• Most Ugandans are of blood group O. Group O donors contribute to 48% of blood collections annually.
• There are four types of transfusable items that can be derived from blood – red cells, platelets, plasma and cryoprecipitate. A single donation can potentially help up to three patients.
• In Uganda just like other low income countries, up to 65% of the transfusions are for children below five years. In high income countries, the most frequently transfused patient group is of over 65 years of age.