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Government to give Sh2 billion to clean blood

 Nairobians donating blood at KenCom, Nairobi. [DAVID NJAAGA, STANDARD]

The Ministry of Health will spend Sh2.025 billion to clean blood donated for transfusion.

The announcement came amid persistent reports that a significant amount of donated blood in Kenya is contaminated with disease-causing germs including HIV, hepatitis and syphilis.

In October, the ministry denied a report appearing in a foreign journal, which claimed blood donated to the Kenya National Blood Transfusion Service (KNBTS) was contaminated.

The ministry had demanded that the journal, Blood Disorders & Transfusion, should withdraw the report, which did not happen.

A new report, by among others the Regional Blood Transfusion Centre in Kisumu and US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, shows worrying levels of contamination of donated blood in western Kenya.

The report, involving Maseno University and the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital, shows 9.4 per cent of donated blood to be contaminated with HIV, hepatitis and syphilis. The report was published in the journal, BMC Research Notes, on March 12.

Improve safety

The study says despite efforts to improve safety, a substantial per cent of donated blood in Kenya has infections that can be transmitted to blood recipients.

In the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) for 2018-2021, the ministry says are meant to improve KNBTS capacity to provide safe blood in three years. The MTEF report published last November shows the money will procure modern blood collection, storage and processing technologies.

In Kenya, transfusion involves whole blood as opposed to international best practice where patients are given only the required blood component.

“Close to 95 per cent of transfusions require blood components. Only five per cent require whole blood,” says the MTEF report.

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