By Patrick Rumbu
Hospitals in Nigeria are experiencing 1.5 million pints of blood deficit to cater for patients for various ailments and sickness.
The Global Shapers Help Community Kano, an initiative of the World Economic Forum, disclosed this at the 2024 blood donation drive organized in Kano State.
The Curator for the Global Shapers Community in Kano, Dr. Shuaib Sani Shuaib, said that blood banks in Nigeria have about 500,000 pints of blood in them, which falls way below the 2,000,000 pint needed in the country.
Dr. Shuaib appealed that, for health workers to be able to save as many lives as possible, people need to help with blood donations.
On her part, Team Lead for the blood donation drive, Dr. Radiyah Bashir Kasim, said the benefits of blood donation cannot be overemphasized.
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She, however, highlighted the difficulties of getting negative blood group donors, especially O-negative.
“There are so many benefits that come with blood donation, both to the donor and to the recipient. To the recipient, there are so many diseases that affect people, and it crushes their blood level, leaving them to need blood, and as you know, blood isn’t something you just walk into a store to get.
“There’s the A, B, AB, and O blood groups, and the O negative are universal donors, meaning they can donate blood to every other blood group but can only receive from O negative as well, and only a few people are O negative, so there are difficulties in acquiring blood for such patients.” She said.
Dr. Radiyah said people with chronic illnesses like sickle cell diseases, infections, or going into surgeries might require blood transfusion.
“Even malaria, a prevalent sickness in sub-Saharan Africa, can cause someone to need blood, anemia, cancer, a cesarean section, and the like.” She added.
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The age group needing blood donations stems from neophytes, that is, infants from below 28 days v. down to geriatric, old people.
Dr. Radiyah Bashir Kasim therefore urged members of the public who are willing to donate blood to easily walk into the hematology department of any hospital for the donation.
She noted that there is also an app called Biskit, that they can download on their respective phones, which helps in matching up people who want to donate blood and recipients.
