By Protus Onyango
A person who urgently needs blood transfusion in Kenya to save his or her life is likely to die.
This is because there is a chronic shortage of blood in the country and the situation is set to worsen as school holidays approach because students are the main donors of blood to the national kitty.
Revelations by the medical fraternity indicate that the Kenya National Blood Transfusion Services (KNBTS) is operating below capacity, is mismanaged and lacks a clear road map for getting and storing more blood.
Set up in 2001, the centre is charged with processing and screening of blood. This includes maintenance of cold chain, testing and screening of blood, removal from circulation and destruction of contaminated, blood and preparation of different blood products.
But medical practitioners are now faulting the national body for failure and exposing Kenyans to death. “Kenya needs 200, 000 units of blood per year to deal with illnesses, surgeries, accidents and other medical conditions but we can’t raise half of the volume. I think the government erred in making KNBTS the sole collector and distributor of blood.
The organization has leadership wrangles and is inefficient. It has no plans to collect more blood and this jeopardises the lives of our people,” said a doctor in Embu on condition of anonymity.
The shortfall is aggravated by the daily road accidents and the bombings carried out by Al Shabaab that leave survivors in dire need of blood. Due to the shortfall, only the most urgent cases are being taken care of. Blood in Kenya mainly comes from school-aged children, patients’ relatives and even from patients themselves.
According to KNBTS, less than 10 per cent of adult Kenyans donate blood. “The big reason for this is because of fears among potential donors that they would find out their HIV/Aids status.
Testing centre
Sources say the centre’s total blood bank has sometimes had as low as 40,000 units. The most blood Kenya has ever had on hand is 130, 000 units, which is half the target amount.
Investigations by The County Weekly reveal a bleak situation across the country. Workers at the blood transfusion unit at Kenyatta National Hospital, Kenya’s largest public health care facility; say blood shortages have impacted negatively on medical procedures at the hospital.
“We leave small number of units that there are for emergencies,” said a doctor who requested not to be named. “So the patients who need surgery suffer the most.”
He said sometimes patients who need surgeries that require blood are advised to donate their own blood and this adds a significant percentage of the hospital’s surgery blood supply.
Relatives of those who need the blood are also a major source of blood. But there is no guarantee that the blood a relative donates will save their people. “A relative can donate blood at a hospital and find out that there is no vehicle or fuel to transport the blood to the nearest testing centre,” said Solomon Njeru, who experienced such a scenario at Nkubu Mission Hospital.
He added, “We had to hire a car to take us to Embu Provincial Hospital but got shocked when we got there and were told that there are no re-agents to be used to test the blood. We had to give out Sh2, 000 to buy re-agents.”
Nyanza and Kakamega General Hospitals and Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital at Eldoret serve the Western region. Though the situation is not out of hand now, some doctors say it will worsen when schools close next month.
A doctor at Alupe hospital in Busia County, which gets its blood supply from Moi Hospital in Eldoret, said the situation is grim as some patients die while waiting for the supply.
“It was better in the past where blood services were run as part of the hospital laboratory services allowing each hospital to source for their own blood. Nowadays, a patient can just die because you are told there is no car to transport blood to your facility,” the doctor said.
Dr Margaret Oduor, the director of the KNBTS also agrees that there is shortage and attributes it to many factors. “Very few people are willing to donate blood. Some believe that the blood they donate will be sold to other people and as a result they keep away,” she said.
“Many people are not comfortable with testing their blood and giving them their HIV results. They say they would rather not know their status. They are not prepared for the bad news if they find out that they have HIV,” Dr Oduor said.
She says only 1.3 per cent of the blood collected is found to be HIV-positive. “Of the blood that has to be destroyed, almost half is caused by the presence of Hepatitis B or C, syphilis and Gonorrhea, while the rest is due to problems in the collection process,” Dr Odour said.
The director is urging Kenyans to get tested for HIV/Aids in one of the many Volunteer Counseling and Testing Centers (VCTs) across the country.
“Let people who have gone to the VCTs and known their status come forward and donate blood to save our sisters and brothers,” Dr Oduor said.
Medical practitioners are also pushing for what they call a structured donor system that involves regular education campaigns, blood drives, and mobile donor clinics to reach office workers and people living in rural areas.
Beliefs and customs
Healthcare providers also blame beliefs and customs, which keep blood donors away. They say religion also keeps away would-be donors because their faith does not allow them to go to hospital and they are better off if they die, just praying.
Now, stakeholders want the government to visit more towns throughout the country to raise awareness among Kenyans about blood transfusion service and let other players partner with KNBTS to collect more blood.
The country has only six regional and nine satellite centres for blood transfusion services. These are Nairobi, Nakuru, Kisumu, Mombasa, Eldoret and Embu. In the expansive North Eastern region, there is only one centre located in Garissa.
They say willing donors find it exhausting locating a blood collection point and another challenge is having the donors know their blood group, a key factor in blood donation process.
