World Blood Donors Day: Health Minister wants Nigerians to donate blood to save lives

The Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole, has passionately appeal to Nigerians to imbibe the habit of donating blood regularly to help save lives before and during emergencies.

The minister made this appeal yesterday while briefing members of the press on activities to mark this year’s World blood donor day in Abuja.

According to him, emergencies increase the demand for blood transfusion and make its delivery challenging and complex and so adequate supplies of safe blood units before and during emergencies cannot be overemphasized.

He said, ‘It reduces the incidence of mortality arising from severe acute blood losses following obstetric emergencies, trauma especially during road traffic accidents, bomb blasts, collapsed buildings to mention a few. It also requires a well-organized blood service, which can only be ensured by engaging the entire community and a blood donor population committed to voluntary unpaid blood donation throughout the year’.

He lamented further, “globally, about 108 million units of blood are utilized per annum. With a population of over 180 million, the estimated blood need in Nigeria is about 1.8 million units of blood per annum. Unfortunately, much less is donated leading to avoidable deaths and morbidities particularly amongst our women folk, newborn children, victims of road traffic accidents and insurgencies.

This situation can improve if up to 1% of our country’s adult population commit themselves to voluntary non-remunerated blood donation on a regular basis.

He added, Our limited national data indicate that voluntary non-remunerated blood donation accounts for only 10% of our total blood collection. Family replacement donations and commercial donations account for 30 and 60 percent respectively. This situation needs to be reversed as we move towards the attainment of 100% voluntary non- remunerated blood donation by the year 2020.

“To do this, we are creating the enabling environment for the National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) to thrive. A draft bill for the establishment of a National Blood Service Commission is currently being prepared by my Ministry for presentation to the Federal Executive Council as an Executive bill.

This will grant the NBTS the autonomy it requires to carry out its mandate in consonance with global best practices. In addition to this, regularization of the appointments of core technical staff previously engaged on the programme is being pursued in order to ensure that relevant skill sets are available to optimize service delivery at the Blood Service.

The NBTS will thus have a proper mandate to provide safe, quality and adequate blood in an equitable and cost-effective manner to all people resident in Nigeria. This will be executed through a network of seventeen (17) centers spread across the six (6) geopolitical zones of the Federation including the FCT.

Beyond setting up the NBTS, the establishment of an efficient trauma care network, which defines referral hospitals/trauma centers on the basis of their ability to treat casualties rather than their proximity to the scene of the event is an important step in improving national emergency response.

This is consistent with this year’s campaign and brings to fore the urgent need to foster collaborations with relevant agencies such as the Nigerian Red Cross Society, NEMA, Nigerian Police Force, Federal Road Safety Corps, Civil Defence Corps & the Nigerian Defence Forces in order to develop an Emergency protocol/ guidelines for action during emergencies.

Adewole also commended the US Government for its support to the NBTS through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for 11 years under a Cooperative Agreement with the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), and for their continued supply of much needed blood screening kits and other essential consumables, even after the original funding to the programme ended in September 2016.

He said, “I also acknowledge the presence of students who are members of the Secondary School Blood Safety Clubs in their respective institutions and applaud their desire to imbibe the culture of voluntary blood donation as soon as they turn 18 years of age.

Their course of action is a veritable means of increasing Nigeria’s voluntary donor pool for the future, so they can be called upon to donate blood whenever the need arises’.

Earlier, in his welcome address, the Director of Hospital services, Federal Ministry of Health, Dr. Wapada Balami, stressed the need for the establishment of effective national blood donor programmes with the capacity to respond promptly to the increase in blood demanding during emergencies as well as the inclusion of blood transfusion services in national emergency preparedness and response activities as a way of providing a blood service that gives patients access to safe and blood products in sufficient quantities.

He explains further,”ensuring safe and sufficient blood supplies requires the development of a nationally coordinated blood transfusion service based on voluntary non- remunerated blood donations.

The theme for this year’s campaign focuses on blood donation in emergencies with the slogan “What can you do? Give blood. Give Often”. The campaign underlines the role every single person can play in helping others during emergency situations by giving the valuable gift of blood. It also reinforces the message that it is important to give blood regularly, so that the blood stock is adequate before an emergency arises.

It also highlights blood safety which encompasses actions aimed at ensuring that everyone has access to blood and blood products that are safe, available at reasonable cost, sufficient to meet the needs of patients, transfused only when necessary, and provided as part of a sustainable blood programme within the existing health care system.