Seasonal blood shortages. Effects on human lives
Seasonal blood shortages are periods when there are no units of blood for transfusion therapy at the various hospital blood banks across the country. The consequences of the situation have usually resulted in loss of human lives.
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The National Blood Service mostly experiences these blood shortages between January and May and also between November and December annually. The antidote for this seasonal shortage is yet to be found, despite several efforts to manage the difficult situation.
The National Blood Service, Ghana (NBSG), the agency under the Ministry of Health with the mandate to ensure a coordinated approach to the provision of safe, adequate and efficacious blood and blood products, has in the past years observed that the seasonal blood shortages do occur basically as a result of increased demand for blood and blood products during the periods as stated above, whereby such demands greatly exceed voluntary donations.
Effective coordination
With effective coordinated approach as specified in the mandate of the Blood Service, together with regular publicity campaigns and appreciation of donors and some level of increased incentive packages for donors (not in monetary terms though), it is believed that such approach could enhance donors’ quest to repeatedly donate at the right time to increase blood collection for the periods.
Ideally, seasonal blood shortages could be eliminated if only the general public will respectfully understand the nature of the shortages, why and when they occur and the need to constantly donate blood through various legitimate sources of supply.
To emphasise the point, Ghana’s blood shortages largely occur during January - April, when schools are on break and corporate organisations are less likely to have blood donation exercises because of other factors we may not expound.
In Ghana for instance, senior high school and college blood donation exercises account for 70 per cent of annual collections, with the rest from the faith-based organisations and others, forming 30 per cent of donations. This clearly explains the seasonal shortage during the early part of the year when schools are out on vacation and the rest of the public also go on Christmas and Easter festivities.
This seasonal shortage obviously has incalculable telling effect or dire consequence on the population, particularly: accident victims, people with burns complication, children with severe malaria, sickle cell patients among others, who profoundly require regular and periodic blood transfusion therapy for survival.
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An estimated 350 units of blood is needed daily to serve the Southern Area Blood Centre of the service, which covers the Accra metropolis and its environs, as well as the Central, Volta, Eastern and parts of the Western regions.
WHO’s criteria
Ghana is currently far behind the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) criteria of collecting safe blood through 100 per cent voluntary sources by some 60 per cent, but collecting only 40 per cent annually.
Fortunately or unfortunately, almost all of us as citizens of Ghana know someone who has needed blood at some point in time, whether a sickle cell patient, a burn victim, an accident victim, a cancer patient, someone having undergone surgery or a premature baby delivery. Assuming there was no blood to save the lives of those people, what would have happened? A number of them might also not survive at the time of their condition, perhaps because of non-availability of blood at the time. Can such a situation be avoided?
The telling effect of these seasonal shortages cannot be overemphasised. Think about the number of deaths at our major hospitals when there is shortage, the frustrations patients have to go through in order to access blood, the inconveniences, the disappointments and the terrible pain the patients go through to access blood for whatever need to be met. At times, major surgeries would have to be rescheduled at the expense of the patient, all because of non-availability of blood.
Remedies
The NBSG believes that with all hands on deck, the seasonal blood shortage the country is facing could be avoided in future.
In the month of February for example there are a number of institutions in Accra and other parts of the country that have expressed interest in mass blood drive activities and the service highly commends those institutions and organisations for the initiative and also recognises their efforts.
We at the National Blood Service would like to urge all eligible blood donors to help Ghana reduce this problem of seasonal blood shortages in the system, which normally occur during the months of January, April, June, July and in December. During these period, very few people donate blood and in some cases, no donations at all.
The service, as part of its 2016 strategy, is focusing on improving ways to collect enough blood from voluntary sources. Furthermore, with the kind support from our media partners in the past, the service intends to increase and as much as possible, sustain public awareness programmes through the various media outlets on blood donation and its related activities.
Continual education
With regard to continual education, the service hopes to address the kind of myths surrounding blood donation among sections of the public, to encourage more potential donors. All these plans, if well executed, would help to ensure blood is always available in our hospital blood banks at all times for treatment.
Moreover and perhaps the most fundamental of all is that blood cannot be manufactured. It takes somebody out of love to decide to donate to save a life. You can make a difference by joining the life-saving associates anywhere in the country to donate now.
I am sure many are still wondering why even though it appears people have always donated blood whenever the appeal is made to the public, the nation still experiences the seasonal shortages at the major hospital blood banks.
The truth is blood and its components have a short lifespan of just 35 days, after which it can no longer be used. The platelet concentrates component of the blood for instance, can only be kept for up to five days.
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Thankfully, because demand has always exceeded supply, the blood has no luxury of waiting for that period where it could no longer be used.
• The writer is the Public Relations & Communication Officer, National Blood Service, Ghana.