Lagos set to recruit voluntary blood donors

The Lagos State government has revealed plans to recruit and maintain voluntary blood donors and ensure adequate supply of safe blood for transfusion, in line with the World Health Organization (WHO) goal of non-remunerated blood donation in every country of the world. The government noted that it was only through recruitment of voluntary blood donors […]

The Lagos State government has revealed plans to recruit and maintain voluntary blood donors and ensure adequate supply of safe blood for transfusion, in line with the World Health Organization (WHO) goal of non-remunerated blood donation in every country of the world.

The government noted that it was only through recruitment of voluntary blood donors that the challenges militating against blood transfusion can be overcome.

The Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Professor Akin Abayomi, stated this on Wednesday at the 2019 Annual Stakeholders’ Summit of the Lagos State Blood Transfusion Service (LSBTS).

Abayomi expressed Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s “unshaken resolve” to ensure access to screened, certified, clean and quality blood for citizens, especially pregnant women, whenever it is required.

Speaking on the theme, ‘Strategy for Reducing Maternal Mortality:

Increasing the Blood Supply’, the Commissioner said, “In a place like Lagos where we have two teaching hospitals, 27 general hospitals and over 300 primary healthcare centres, we should not accept these preventable deaths.”

He stressed the need for quality assurance in the donation and transfusion of blood, adding that a situation where people were infected with blood-related diseases as a result of transfusion was unacceptable.

“I have seen a few patients who were infected with hepatitis through blood transfusion or contaminated needles. Only a few months ago a friend of mine with sickle cell went for injection and she was unfortunately infected with hepatitis B. This kind of trend has to be eliminated,” he said.