By Leonard Kamugisha Akida,
NATIONAL
The unmet demand for blood in Uganda has spawned a black market in which hospitals give blood to patients for profit and there few or no legal frameworks to ensure that blood is freely administered to patients in both private and government health facilities.
With a population expected to reach 55 million people in 2025, the demand for safe blood is projected to increase in Uganda for patients who have been in accidents, undergo surgery and need it to treat conditions such as anaemia and other genetic blood disorders. However, each year, only about 300,000 (Three hundred thousand) pints (236,600 litres) of blood are collected through official channels.
Ugandans are often reluctant to give blood because of bias that hospitals and health workers are making profits from their freely donated blood by illegally selling it to patients. The national transfusion body, Uganda Blood Transfusion Service (UBTS) says this has resulted into low supply.
Besides, there are also reports that blood is sold to hospitals, biomedical, academic centres and pharmaceutical companies. But, Dorothy Kyeyune Byabazaire, the Executive Director UBTS said selling of blood is entirely blamed on the Directorate of Clinical Services not because their responsibility (UBTS) stops at Health Center Four level. She contends that selling of blood is illegal in Uganda.
“We have put up posters in hospitals stating that blood is not for sale. Each unit of our blood is labelled “not for sale” if you are asked to buy blood in a hospital, contact UBTS for action to be taken,” she said.
The ED said this corrupt practice is common with health facilities which fail to account for blood units received. She added that the practice is impacting negatively on the supply of blood.
“We have started investigations and we are working closely with the ministry of health to find ways of improving on this […] We shall ask technicians to help us find out how we can fight selling of blood in health facilities,” said UBTS ED, Dorothy Kyeyune. She disclosed that they have developed the Blood Safety Information System e-Delphyne (BSIS) tool to enable in tracking blood units issued to health facilities to make sure that it is accounted for.
Dr. Charles Olaro, official from the ministry of health revealed that the demand for blood in Uganda remains high with 60 percent of blood consumption being for children while 25 percent being for pregnancy related complications. He expressed the need to address challenges of blood deficits like preventing low blood supply and reducing the demand for blood products.
He implored expectant mothers to always visit health facilities for antenatal care and deliver in hospitals to avoid risks of anemia and severe malaria likely to cause blood deficiency in their bodies and to their unborn babies resulting into high mortality rates.
Uganda will host the 11th Africa Society for Blood Transfusion (AfSBT) Congress from 4th-7th March, 2024 at Speke Resort Hotel Munyonyo under the theme; “Safe and sustainable blood transfusion in Africa – adopting global innovations and technology advancements in blood transfusion services.”
Prof. Isaac Kajja a blood transfusion specialist from Makerere University department of orthopedics and former Secretary General of AfSBT said Uganda will benefit from the Congress
“The science that is going to come tomus in those four days is going to be tremendous. As the country we are certainly going to benefit. We are going to see improvements , advancements and new innovations in receiving new blood donors, managing blood donors and ensuring donor safety,” he said.
During the congress, UBTS said they will leverage on experts and other stakeholders to ensure knowledge sharing, innovations in ensuring the availability of safe blood transfusion services for the Ugandan population.
