Mbale blood bank opts for door-to-door drives

Last week, a health team travelled from Mbale Town to Namutumba District in a blood mobilisation drive but returned with only two units.

On another occasion, another team travelled to Nagongera in Tororo District and came back with one unit of blood.
This was like a drop for Mbale Regional Blood Bank that needs 4,000 units of blood a month to ably serve Karamoja, Teso, Sebei, Bugisu, Bukedi and Busoga sub-regions.

“Communities are not willing to donate blood because they are hungry,” Mr Ahamed Bumba, the director of the blood bank, says.

His team has been facing this challenge in the past four months of Covid-19-imposed lockdown in their efforts to collect blood from around the eastern region.
The closure of educational institutions exasperated the situation.

“Our biggest source of blood was interrupted following the closure of schools in March. Schools had just opened for barely two months,” Mr Bumba says.
“Usually, blood from students is largely safe blood since majority of them have not yet been exposed to sexual infections,” he adds.

The blood bank has now devised other methods of collecting blood. For instance, in April, the team embarked on door-to-door visits in new communities.

“We had been to communities in December and January and when the lockdown was imposed, we had to go back to them and yet we had been there before. Many of the blood donors were not due for donation again. Males donate blood every three months while females every four months,” Mr Bumba says.

“We also reactivated our mobilisation strategy, sending messages to our donors and reminding them to come and donate,” he adds.

At Soroti Regional Referral Hospital, Dr John Ekunait, the head of Obstetrics and Gynaecology department, says they have since resorted to using surgical methods such diathermy to minimise huge blood loss, especially during child birth. Diathermy is a therapeutic treatment commonly prescribed for muscle and joint conditions.

It uses a high-frequency electric current to stimulate heat generation within body tissues. The heat helps with various processes, including increasing blood flow.
“We are using diathermy surgical technology so that mothers don’t bleed to death given the blood shortage,” Dr Ekunait says.

Statistics from the obstetric ward indicate that 11 children have died between May and August due to anaemia following severe malaria.

“Those who died ranged between two and 10 years,” Sr Lillian Otoo, a health worker at the ward, says.
“More than 30 children under-go blood transfusion on a daily basis and when there is blood shortage, we usually call our sister agencies to come to our rescue,” she adds.

Dr Elizabeth Nabiwemba, the director of Strengthening Education and Training in Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights, an NGO, urges community groups to donate blood.

“This effort should be done while observing the standard operating procedures to avoid the spread of Covid-19. One of the precautions is by having them not to come in groups,” Dr Nabiwemba advises. Mr Michael Mukundane, the coordinator of donor recruitment and donor retention at Uganda Blood Transfusion Services, acknowledges the significant drop in blood collection.

“Since the collection of blood is done in crowded places, people fear [to come] due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Other institutions such as the army training schools which used to be our biggest donors, the army leadership now does not allow us access to them. This has significantly led to a shortage of blood units of up to 45 per cent,” Mr Mukundane says.

With optimism, he adds: “With the support from the Health ministry and other stakeholders such as the Indian Association, banks and lotteries, we have been trying to sustain the blood supply.”

Situation in Tororo

Dr Walter UR yek-Wun, the senior hospital administrator of Tororo hospital, says sometimes they refer patients to Mbale. He says in other cases, it is too late to save the patients even when they are a priority. “Mothers and children are our priority in blood transfusion. Some mothers are brought when they don’t know their blood group and the process of screening to establish their blood group turns fatal,” Dr UR yek-Wun says. However, he adds that accident victims, who need a lot of blood, have been few at the health facility since lockdown.

Reported by Fred Wambede, Simon Emwamu, Anthony Wesaka & Joseph Omollo

[email protected]