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Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Leukaemia Patients at the Uganda Cancer Institute are endangered as the facility starts rationing blood, in disregard of transfusion standards recommended for treatment of the cancer.
People with leukaemia, need periodic blood transfusions to ensure that the disease does not interfere with the normal production of red cells, white cells and platelets in the bone marrow. Medical treatment guidelines recommend that blood transfusion should be done on people with a blood count of 20 platelets.
However, a severe Blood Shortage has forced the Uganda Cancer Institute to disregard the guidelines. A number of patients in dire need on transfusion are passed over, some left to go to as low as 10 platelets before a transfusion is done.
According to Dr Joyce Balagadde, a pediatric oncologist in charge of children at the Uganda Cancer Institute, the kind of treatment leukaemia patients are subjected to such as chemotherapy, drug therapy or radiation, damages the bone marrow which is responsible for blood production hence lowering the platelet count in the blood.
Dr Joyce Balagadde adds that the institute is entirely dependent on blood transfusion for the treatment of cancers. She says leukaemia Patients who are solely dependent on blood transfusion are highly restrained when blood shortages strike especially during long school holidays where students who cover 80 per cent of blood donations are out of school.
But despite the need, the supply remains limited leaving hundreds of patients stranded. Namirembe Aputwa, a mother to a 7-year-old Leukemia patient who was referred from Mbale Regional Referral Hospital says that the service has eluded them, despite travelling such a long distance in dire need.
“My daughter loses blood because she bleeds often. However, other than the one blood transfusion she received on arrival, chemotherapy is all she receives now,” she says. Andrew Tumwiine, a caretaker for 10-year-old leukaemia patient says that the absence of blood is catastrophic since it is the first line of treatment for most of the patients in this category.
Dr Balagadde says the institute has to cope with such restraint by availing blood to those in they can afford to and let those that can live on to wait longer.
“Hopefully the blood transfusion service will grow because we are entirely dependent on it. Their products are a significant cause of our treatment mortality. Children bleed out and die because of low platelet counts,” she says.
Michael Mukundane, the spokesperson of Uganda Blood Transfusion Services says 10 per cent of the blood distributed is shared by the cancer institute, sickle cell disease patients and accidents victims.
The National Blood Bank is only able to collect 260,000 units of the 400,000 units that it should collect, in line with WHO recommendations. The World Health Organization recommends that the country collects 1 per cent of its total population.
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