A Police officer donating blood recently in Gulu City. Photos by Phillips Kica.
Phillips Kica and Arnest Tumwesige
Gulu: Gulu Regional Blood Bank is struggling to raise enough blood to support the various health facilities across the region.
Norah Akena, the Senior Nursing Officer at Gulu Regional Blood Bank, revealed that Acholi sub region requires 50 units of blood to supply various health units daily, however, the blood bank collects an average of only 10 Units per day from the public, representing only 20 percent of blood required daily.
Akena said it is only during the celebration of public holidays like Women’s Day when they can get more than 100 units of blood a day.
Gulu Regional Blood Bank supplies blood to the entire Acholi sub-region, parts of Lango, Karamoja, and West Nile.
Matayo Yandua, the Senior Laboratory Technologist at Gulu Regional Referral Hospital, disclosed that the hospital has been facing an acute shortage of blood from December 2023 to date.
According to Yandua, in January 2024, the hospital requested 363 units of whole blood type from the regional blood bank, but got only 37 units.
The hospital also requested 596 units of packed Red Blood Cells (pRBCs) and got only 104 units.
pRBCs are obtained after removing plasma from whole blood. Patients who benefit most from the transfusion of pRBCs include those with chronic anemia resulting from Kidney failure or stomach bleeding and those with acute blood loss resulting from surgery or road crashes.
Yandua said because of the shortage of blood, the hospital sometimes makes three trips to the regional blood bank a day to check if blood is available.
“Sometimes you will have a queue of people who need blood, when there is no blood. Sometimes they tell us to wait around 5pm when they return from the field,” Yandua said.
Experience of the donors
Innocent Okwera, a resident of Gulu City, started donating blood after he recovered from a road crash that almost claimed his life.
Okwera appeals to every person who can to donate blood to save lives of hundreds of anemic children, expectant mothers and victims of road crashes in various health facilities.
Janat Dramiri aged 26, a resident of Gulu City has donated four times. She proudly told GNNA of how it is interesting to donate blood.
“I donated three times from Kiryandongo and once in Gulu. I saw the blood bank donation team in Gulu recently but I could not donate. I was busy,” she noted.
The World Health Organization recommends that at least 1% of a country’s population should donate blood.
According to the latest United Nations data published by Worldometer, the population of Uganda stood at 49.4 million as of Saturday February 17, 2024, implying that the country should collect 490,000 units of blood.
However, statistics from Uganda Red Cross Society indicates that only 313,659 units of blood were collected as at June 2023.
On February 13, 2024, the members of Parliament tasked the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development to allocate a supplementary budget request of Shs10bn to the National Drug Authority to enable Uganda Blood Transfusion Services carryout blood mobilization activities.
Without blood, the organs in the body don’t get enough oxygen and nutrients to survive. Blood is also required in the body to fight infections and remove waste products that can potentially cause body weakness and even death.
Overcome the barriers
In Uganda, students in secondary and tertiary institutions of learning are considered healthy, active, and receptive, thus, regarded as potential blood donors.
A scientific journal titled “Barriers to Blood Donation among Mbarara University of Science and Technology Students” dated February 2021 points out barriers like side effects, fear for needles, inadequate knowledge, existing health conditions, and busy schedules.
Henry Karugaba and Hanifah Nantongo in this research classified the barriers into three levels; personal barriers related to blood donation, socio-cultural variations affecting blood donation, and the barriers concerning the blood donation process.
“Although participants reported willingness to donate blood, it was found to be affected by barriers ranging from individuals related to the system/process in which blood is collected. Addressing these barriers may improve blood donation,” they recommended to Uganda Blood Bank.
Globally, 112.5 million blood donations were made in 180 countries in 2013. Although massive blood donation campaigns are carried out to obtain blood, there is still more demand for blood within hospitals.
