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THE SILENT WITNESS childhood diseases including severe malaria , pneumonias and malignancies , accidents including mass casualty disasters , loss at birth during child birth and many other chronic diseases including cancers . The majority of patients who require blood transfusion is children due to anaemia and women due to pregnancy related bleeding .
When a patient is brought to hospital with some of these diseases , apart from support in form of medicine and fluid therapy , there comes a time where the only remedy is blood transfusion . Blood transfusion hence forms and essential component of health care system in any country . Patients who come to hospital with conditions requiring blood transfusion hence have a right to have available adequate and safe blood for the same purpose . The source of the blood that is transfused to these patients is from donors who volunteer to donate blood as part of their contribution to mankind . This is done freely , without any coercion or expectation of financial gain .
Kenya has continued to experience a growth in population . With this growth in population , there is also a growth in demand for blood . This is coupled with diminished blood donation , creating a huge deficit in the donated blood . This deficit is not only seen in Kenya but in many developing countries . The result is that many patients suffer or die unnecessarily due to lack of access to this crucial part of management .
Case Two ( A report appearing in the Standard newspaper on 17th July 2020 )
On June 9 , 2020 , Betty Kiplagat , a new mother aged 26years went to deliver at Chemolingot hospital in Baringo county . After delivery she developed sudden bleeding ( in medical jargon known as port partum haemorrhage ). Due to there being no blood at the facility in which she had delivered , she was referred to Rift Valley Provincial Hospital in Nakuru , which was 160km away , for blood transfusion . By the time she was reaching the hospital , she had lost a significant amount of blood and died the following day . The baby also died .
The above report is not isolated and there are many reports of mothers losing their lives or of their newborns due to excessive bleeding post-delivery and lack of blood in the hospitals where they deliver .
In Kenya , we have the Kenya National Blood Transfusions Service ( KNBTS ) which was established by the government in the year 2000 within the Ministry of Health . Its mandate includes collection , testing , processing and distribution of blood and blood products to all transfusing hospitals in Kenya . It has six regional centres and 21 satellite centres where they provide the above-mentioned services and Kenyan volunteers can visit for the purpose of donating blood . Remember that that one unit of blood you donate can save upto 4 lives .
“ With growth in population , there ’ s also growth in demand for blood . This , coupled with diminished blood donation , is creating a huge deficit in donated blood in many developing countries . The result is that many patients suffer or die unnecessarily due to lack of access to this crucial part of management .”
Blood that is donated can further be processed and give various products which can be used in patients in need of the components of blood and not the whole blood . The main components include cryoprecipitates , packed red cells , fresh frozen plasma and platelets . Cryoprecipitate is produced after removal of all cellular components of blood and the remaining plasma is precipitated . The remaining precipitate is rich in proteins which include clotting factors and is mainly used with people with diseases like haemophilia where one has defects with clotting hence , they are prone to excessive bleeding .
Fresh frozen plasma is a blood product made from the liquid portion of whole blood . It is used to treat conditions in which there are low blood clotting factors or low levels of other blood proteins . It may also be used as the replacement fluid in plasma exchange . Packed red cells and red blood cells which have been separated from other components of blood is used to treat anaemias . Platelets can also be separated from the blood and be used in patients with low platelets levels which is caused by many disease conditions
Anyone can donate blood as long as he / she is aged between 16yrs and 65years . One has to be healthy and the blood once donated is tested for Hepatitis band C , Syphilis and HIV in order to ensure that it is safe before being transfused to a needy person . You can also donate blood every 3 months for males and every 4months for females and in every donation , the amount of blood that you donate is one pint ( which translate to 450ml ). Remember that in healthy individuals , blood regenerates rapidly so that in no time , your body will have replaced the blood that you donated . ( This is also because the amount of blood that you donate is a small fraction of the total amount of blood that your body has which is between 9 and 12pints ).
There are many advantages of donating blood including saving lives , altruism and patriotism . It also gives you an opportunity to know your blood group and your health status for you will be able to know your blood pressure , HB levels etc .
Let ’ s develop a blood donation culture so that we can help the Kenya National Blood Transfusion Services to fill up the huge deficit and in doing so , save lives . ■
Dr . Johansen Oduor , MBChB ( UoN ), MMed Path ( UoN ), Dip for Med ( College of Medicine South Africa ), is a Forensic Pathologist and President Emeritus , African Society Forensic Medicine . You can commune with him via mail at : Johansenoduor @ gmail . com .
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