Lagos Transfuses 90,788 Units Of Blood Into Patients

All public hospitals in Lagos State, southwest Nigeria, have transfused 90,788 units of blood into patients in the last five years, says the Lagos State Blood Transfusion Committee.

This was revealed on Wednesday at the opening ceremony of the Strategic Planning Workshop organised by the Lagos State Blood Transfusion Committee, LSBTC, held at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, LCC1, Ikeja.

• Pint of blood

The statistics shows that between 2008 and 2012, 90,788 units of blood were used up by all public hospitals in Lagos for patients that needed blood transfusion.

The statistics also revealed that out of the 423,893 pints of blood received and screened by the LSBTC between 2005 and January and February 2013,  4,840 of them were found to be HIV infected, 8,830 have hepatitis B, 3,418 units contain syphilis, while 393,165 units of blood were certified okay for use by public and private hospitals.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Chairman, LSBTC, Dr. Adetoun Agbe-Davies said the first strategic five years plan was from 2008 and expired in 2012, adding that there was the need to adopt another plan to fit into the overall strategic plan of the Lagos State Ministry of Health for the health sector.

“We still have less than 10 percent of blood transfused in the state coming from voluntary blood donors. This is far from the 100 percent target set by the World Health Organisation, WHO, for the whole world to achieve by 2020. We have engaged the services of consultants to assist and guide us through the processes involved.

“We should therefore focus our attention on contributing to formulating a robust plan that we can implement in the next few years -be it three or five years,” she stated.

Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris disclosed that in the last nine years, there had been a steady increase in response to voluntary blood donation which started with a figure of less than 500 blood donors in 2005 and more than 3,000 in 2012, adding that blood usage in Lagos as at 2012 stood at 30,000.

Idris, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Dr. Femi Olugbile, added that there had been a satisfactory level of compliance with both private and public blood banks in issuing out blood certified by Lagos State as well as with hospitals transfusing only blood certified by the state.

“The blood transfusion service started with screening of 35,000 units of blood in 2005 which has progressively increased to over 60,000 in 2012. The state government is committed to ensuring that blood transfused in Lagos State is safe at all times and supply is adequate, by supporting the drive for voluntary donation, screening and quality assurance in processing.

“The objective of the workshop was to consolidate the progress so far, identify challenges and gaps and make plans on the way forward. The last strategic plan has now expired and the committee stakeholders are ready to review how much of the previous plan was implemented, identify the constraints and deliberate on further plans,” he explained.