Police lead blood donation drive amid acute shortage
Bungoma County Police Commander Francis Kooli urging Kenyans donate blood at Uwanja Ndege in Bungoma County.
What you need to know:
- Many patients at Bungoma County Referral Hospital are dying from shortage of blood and lack of screening kits.
- The hospital depends on Eldoret and Kisumu to screen blood, which is then transported back by road even when it is urgently needed.
Police in Bungoma County have embarked on a blood donation drive after Bungoma County Referral Hospital disclosed that many patients are dying from shortage of blood and lack of screening kits.
They are also sensitising locals about sickle cell, a genetic blood disorder. Leading the drive at Uwanja Ndege, County Police Commander Francis Kooli emphasised the importance of donating blood and getting tested for the sickle cell trait.
“I urge everyone to donate blood regularly; it is a lifeline for many patients in need of transfusion,” he said.
In an interview with Healthy Nation, Dr Dickens Lubanga, a paediatrician at the hospital, noted a surge in deaths due to blood shortage. He further said they depend on Eldoret and Kisumu to screen blood, which is then transported back by road even when it is urgently needed.
Dr Lubanga explained that chances of contracting diseases during blood transfusion increase when blood is not screened. “Bungoma is in dire need of blood as huge numbers of sickle cell and haemophilia patients depend on blood to survive. We transfuse sickle cell patients three to four times a month per person and they are so many.
“Women in our maternity wards, those increasingly being involved in grisly road accidents and sickle cell patients need urgent blood transfusion to live,” he said, disclosing that sickle cell patients take up almost half of the blood collected.
“I call on those seeking partners for marriage to visit health facilities and get tested for the sickle cell trait before making a decision, to control the rampant rise of sickle cell cases. I urge men to marry from outside the region as Western and Nyanza have high numbers of sickle cell cases.
“I also wish to urge Governor Ken Lusaka and Health and Sanitation CEC Antony Wamalwa to ensure the blood satellite launched a long time ago is completed and equipped so that doctors don’t find it hard to screen blood before it is given to patients; specialists in the Eldoret screening centre get overwhelmed.”
Mr Boniface Were, the deputy officer in charge of Bungoma Blood Transfusion Centre, said Bungoma collects only 80 pints of blood currently against a demand of atleast 1000 pints . They however get 600 pints of blood that is donated from Eldoret which means there is a deficit of about 400 pints of blood that is needed.so as to meet that demand.”
