KNBTS to map accidents hotspots to ease emergency access to blood

The Health Ministry has embarked on mapping accidents hotspots as a way of improving its services.

The mapping will be spearheaded by  the Kenya National Blood Transfusion Service.

This is after it emerged that more than 30 per cent of mortalities in the country that result from road accidents are due to bleeding and blood-related complications.

The KNBTS has been undergoing a lot of reforms in the recent past and a change in blood collection strategy has been arrived at to ensure the availability of blood when and where it is needed.

The service has also disclosed that part of the plan will be mapping parts of the country that have more cases of sickle cell or haemophilia cases.

KNBTS Executive Director Nduku Kilonzo has acknowledged that Nairobi has an unmet need of blood with hospitals like Mama Lucy having only 85 per cent of the daily need filled.

“When I say unfulfilled we are filling the need for about 85 per cent of the daily need for Mama Lucy, for Pumwani, we are far from filling the need and we have reorganized our collection strategy for Nairobi which we will be deploying,” Kilonzo said.

The Kenyatta National Hospital is the largest consumer of blood.

“From February, we will embark on a process to understand our clinical needs for blood. We don’t know for instance where is it that we have more sickle cell or we have more hemophilias across the country.

“We know 35 per cent of our maternal mortalities across the country are as a result of bleeding or blood-related complications and haemorrhage. We have avoidable deaths and these deaths are from bleeding complications. We have to wait for time for surgeries we are hoping to reduce that.”

The government has increased the blood banking capacity from 24,000 units of blood and blood products to 50,000 units with nine cols rooms across the country.

Similarly, the biobank freezer is currently being used in the national testing laboratory to be able to hold samples while vehicles that were lying around in dilapidated condition are now being repaired.

Those that are not under repair are in a process of bonding through the ministry for disposal.

Ten vehicles have been acquired to specifically support the regional centres and three regional centres that were quite a little bit dilapidated have been renovated.

“In the last about 13 months we are at 297,000 units collected and that has benefited about 282,000 Kenyans. I won’t say life saved because sometimes people still do succumb to illness even if they have received blood but at least we know we have served that number of Kenyans,” Kilonzo noted.

Kenya has been struggling with blood shortages. The country requires between 500,000 to one million units of blood a year, yet collects less than a quarter of that volume.

The country needs at least one million pints of blood every year, leaving a huge gap that needs urgent intervention.

The Covid-19 pandemic worsened the shortage crisis as people shunned going to hospitals, coupled with the closure of colleges and schools.

The Covid-19 pandemic has led to a reduction of blood-related activities in the region including Kenya, including the supply and demand, with the World Health organization calling on countries to put more emphasis on preparedness plans for health emergencies and the need to maintain bloodstock.

“In the countries with reduced blood donations, lockdown orders, donor anxiety and fear of COVID-19 infection during blood donation, which often stems from popular misconceptions and misinformation, have hindered blood donors from accessing blood transfusion services,” a WHO survey conducted in September 2020 said.

The global health agency estimates that the pandemic led to a 20 per cent to 30 per cent reduction of blood supply in all its six regions with Kenya reporting a 44.2 per cent drop between 2019 and 2020.

The blood drives conducted in 2020 were just 378 in 2020, a drop from 1,613 in 2019, representing a 76.6 per cent drop.