Kenya advised to end reliance on schools for blood donations

The Global Blood Fund, which has been assisting Kenya in blood donation initiatives, wants the country to seek ways of ending dependency on learning institutions.

The Fund, which is based in the United Kingdom and the United States and which has supported blood initiatives in other African countries since 2008, says there is a need to consider other establishments if Kenyan hospitals are to have a steady flow of blood.

Since mid-March, learning institutions have been closed, which has seen the blood bank in the country run dangerously low on stocks.

The organisation’s executive director Gavin Evans told the Sunday Nation via email that, from his observation in African countries they have worked with, 60 to 70 per cent of blood in the banks is typically from high schools.

“Covid-19 has brutally exposed the dangers of collection programmes that lack the necessary diversity and fail to encourage as broad a cross-section of the population as possible to engage in blood donation,” stated Mr Evans.

He noted that viable blood collection programmes factor in not just schools but also businesses, places of worship and community organisations.

“They also leverage public gatherings and events as opportunities to engage and interact with potential donors,” he said. “A good outcome for blood services across Africa will be that they diversify their donor activities and rely less on learning institutions.”

He also advised Kenya to seek ways of retaining secondary school students so that they continue donating after leaving their learning institutions.

“Students are not actively tracked and encouraged to maintain their habit of donation. They drift off and are lost to the system,” he noted.

If students are retained, he said, they can potentially give blood for their lifetime. “It could total 100 or more units for each student retained,” Mr Evans said.

As the Covid-19 pandemic ravages the world, Mr Evans said it is not just in Kenya where a drop had been observed in the volumes of blood available for transfusion.

A large proportion of blood supplies is used in the management of complications related to pregnancy and childbirth, as well as treating severe childhood anaemia.

According to data released yesterday by Health Chief Administrative Secretary Rashid Aman, the situation of blood banks in the country is challenging and there is a need to restock.

Dr Aman emphasised that the pandemic has made it worse for the centre given that the pints collected daily have dropped from 500 to 250. This, he said, is alarming and has caused a major strain on the banks.

With a population of nearly 50 million, the World Health Organization recommends that a country of Kenya’s standard needs about one million units of blood annually. But over the past three years, only 164,275 units were collected every year, representing a paltry 16 per cent of what is needed.

Recognising the need for additional investment in the national blood bank, the government has allocated Sh1 billion and employed an additional 22 staff to improve the level of services and expand blood collection to all sites in the country.

The funds will also be used to ensure that the facility has the right equipment and reagents to guarantee Kenyans safe and properly handled blood for transfusing patients.

The Health ministry is also considering changing the governance of the institution to make it a semi-autonomous agency and to improve services.

In March, the Kenya National Blood Transfusion Service (KNBTS) revealed that 1,000 units of blood, one-third of the total collected between January and March, was disposed of because it expired before being tested.

Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said cartels have thrived in the blood “industry”, making it difficult to have a sustainable supply, a matter that he has since taken up with the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).

“We have asked the DCI to intervene in the selling of blood outside the borders of this country. Investigations are going on and we expect arrests to be made,” he said.

The DCI is investigating  Ministry of Health employees on claims that they were selling donated blood outside the country.

The leadership wrangles at the blood bank have also dealt the blood bank a big blow.

Dr Fridah Govedi, the KNBTS director, and Charles Rombo, a lab technician and the service's technical head, do not see eye to eye.

Dr Govedi and Mr Rombo fought viciously over who would control the service, with both running to Principal Secretary Susan Mochache over every issue that was going on at the institution.

Dr Govedi was at some point unceremoniously transferred to Kenyatta National Hospital's Paediatrics Unit in February while Mr Rombo took over office. However, early this month, she staged a spectacular come-back, arriving with workmen who broke into the KNBTS director's office and changed the locks.

While the fight for power between Mr Rombo and Dr Govedi went on, Kenyans suffered the consequences of an acute blood shortage.

As the world celebrates World Blood Donor Day today, which is commemorated to “thank voluntary, unpaid blood donors for their life-saving gifts of blood and to raise awareness of the need for regular blood donations,” it is hoped that Kenyans will soon have access to affordable and safe blood.

Currently many Kenyans are forced to either buy blood or donate when their loved ones are sick in hospital and require it for various procedures.

The government is now collaborating with Facebook to encourage users to donate blood.

However, some Kenyans are adamant since they have been buying blood for their loved ones.

“Why would I donate blood if all they do is either sell or charge someone for it?” posed one Facebook user.

With the exit of donors from the service, the problems are expected to persist.

The Health ministry is now in charge of blood supply through KNBTS, and has for the past 15 years relied on Pepfar, which supported blood collection, testing and policy issues. Pepfar cut funding last year.

From 2004 up to last year, Pepfar disbursed Sh7.3 billion, which catered for the centralised services, including paying for buildings, vehicles, staff and collection and screening of blood for HIV, syphilis and hepatitis C, as well as information systems.

The CDC helped set up the KNBTS in 2000, immediately after and as a result of the bombing of the US Embassy in Nairobi, during which Kenya's acute shortage of safe, quality blood and blood products became apparent.

The CDC supported the KNBTS to the tune of Sh1.6 billion until their phased, planned exit in 2019.