‘Increased voluntary blood donation witnessed nationwide’
Despite intensive campaign by the National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) for people to donate blood voluntarily, have you witnessed any remarkable increase in voluntary blood donation in the three years?The National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) started in Abuja as a demonstration centre some eight years ago. It now has about 18 centres spread across all […]
Despite intensive campaign by the National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) for people to donate blood voluntarily, have you witnessed any remarkable increase in voluntary blood donation in the three years?
The National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) started in Abuja as a demonstration centre some eight years ago. It now has about 18 centres spread across all the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria. The NBTS is fully equipped to screen for four WHO mandatory transfusion transmissible infections i.e HIV 1 and 2, Syphillis, Hepatitis B and C using the latest technology that is the ELISA technique and equally conduct blood grouping through serology as oppose to the traditional tile method.
The NBTS has revolutionised voluntary blood donation in Nigeria through massive awareness on both print and electronic media with radio and TV jingles aired on national and state owned media in the country and across the border in some cases.
Awareness creation is being amplified on daily basis with significant improvement in the number of voluntary donors that come forward to willingly donate to save the lives of others.
We have had significant improvement when compared with the past couple of years with what is happening currently particularly for those of us operating in insecurity endemic areas. It will surprise you to know that people in the north east zone are very eager to come out and donate to save the lives especially during emergencies. We have recorded a significant rise in voluntary donors during recent bomb blasts that occurred in Potiskum town and Damaturu attacks.
All the successes recorded over the past couple of years are not unconnected to the robust leadership qualities of those at the helm of affairs in the NBTS. From Dr Ayo to Dr Ifeoma Obgue to the current NC DR Oluwatoyin Smith who are all amazons that God has brought. We are truly proud of the leadership that has been cascading from the top to bottom.
With this improvement in voluntary blood donation, have we tackled the challenges of stocking our blood banks?
The service has been re-positioned. The accent by the President of the National Health Bill provides a framework for the activities of the NBTS. This is a giant step for us as we await the presentation and passage of the bill which will ultimately give the NBTS the autonomy it desires for a more robust and effective functioning of the service.
NBTS, through the activities of Club 25 which is an umbrella of youths between the ages of 18 -25 who have pledged to donate at least 25 times before their 25th birthdays and who will equally continue to be ambassadors of the service in preaching the gospel of regular voluntary blood donation throughout their lifetime.
Do people still believe in the myths that hamper voluntary blood donation in Nigeria?
Myths are part of the African culture. It is our responsibility at the NBTS to continue to educate the populace in discarding those beliefs that have no scientific basis. We constantly encounter people who see our work differently. In the rural communities you hear people saying they can’t donate due to the following reasons; “they don’t have enough blood in their system, it’s a taboo to give blood to an unknown person; giving blood brings illness on the donor; I can’t give blood because I am diabetic and so on and so forth. We need to educate people on what the benefits of voluntary blood donation are. A lot of progress has been made through our regular TV/radio programmes in enlightening prospective donors and a lot of progress is being made in that regard.
Has there been any improvement in the funding to NBTS?
Funding is a major obstacle. The donor agencies responsible for providing logistics are trying and with the support of the ministry of health, the service is achieving results. Various memos have been written to the National Council of State (NCH) on ownership of centres by state centres, screening with ELISA and establishment of centres by states governments. There has been steady progress in that regards as states governments have now identified with most centres and promised to do more through staff recruitment and funding of activities. Like the Yobe State government under the leadership of Governor Ibrahim Gaidam has shown interest and has pledged to make our work easier by solidifying collaboration with the state ministry of health. This is what we want to see across all the federation so that the activities of the service will be robust and all encompassing.
There are complaints by Nigerians that blood is sold to patients at an exorbitant price in health facilities, why is it so?
It is our duty in the NBTS to disabuse the minds of people as to the service charge paid on a pint of blood. We are constantly preaching that you cannot buy blood for it is an essential commodity that money cannot buy. Everywhere and every opportunity we get to educate the populace we emphasise that the service charge is not payment for the blood but rather as handling charges from screening to storage to transportation. An analogy I always use to illustrate this point during lectures and awareness programmes is that people should remember how expensive and difficult management of AIDS was in the early 90s as compared to the system we have in place today where not only drugs but in some cases personal upkeep of patients are being shouldered by the programme. We will surely get there someday. What we need now is the understanding of the general populace in order to create that pool of safe blood for those in need. Meanwhile the main beneficiaries of blood screened by the NBTS actually get it free of charge like in cases of accidents, mass casualties during disasters and even antepartum and post partum haemorrhages especially in our environment where mortality from APH/PPH is very high.