Uganda embraces technology to end blood shortage

When was the last time you donated blood? Or did you need blood and could not find any unless you invited your relatives to donate for you?

Across the border in Uganda, our neighbours have embraced digital tools to aid in blood donation, including forming a WhatsApp group to help people with hard-to-find blood types easily find their matches. This technological advancement is revolutionizing the way we approach blood donation.

According to Emmanuel Atajja, a laboratory technologist at the Rotary Blood Bank at Mengo Hospital in Kampala, the application helps remind people that their donation is due or get their results in real time.

"We are creating a system that can reach people who may want to donate when one wants blood, and it becomes predictable where one can get it," says Atajja, adding that they are using technology in the mobilization of blood donors, create awareness, mobilization of donors and blood referrals to where people need blood.

This has been advised by the blood shortage in Uganda, where at least 100,000 units of blood are needed each year, and this is why the Rotary Club of Uganda has come together to construct the Blood Bank at Mengo Hospital to work with the national blood bank in collection and storage of blood and its products and to ensure all facilities that offer transfusion facilities receive the blood anytime it is needed.

Atajja says the national blood bank collects 250,000 units annually, and a demand of 350,000 units is needed to supply all the facilities that offer blood transfusion.

"We are at 40 percent of that gap coverage regarding collection and dispatch. This gap is seasonal, especially towards the end of the year when most of the school students' donors are at home, but when the schools resume, there is blood in the banks," says Atajja.

To solve this perennial shortage, Atajja says they have planned to engage the communities, churches, Community-Based Organizations, and other institutions to supplement the blood donation.

They engage the schools by meeting the students individually to give their results and supporting their clubs when they have programs.

Further, they are working towards bringing all the schools on board to end blood scarcity in the country.

He says the major challenge is the gap in knowledge about the importance, frequency, and individual benefits of blood donation.

"What we have seen in the communities is that people know they can donate blood only when they have a patient in the hospital who needs blood, then the family is tasked to mobilize other family members to donate," says Atajja.

Some benefits of donating blood include thrombectomy service, which means one's blood is taken off because one has too much blood, which makes one sick; therefore, when the blood is reduced, one feels better.

Atajja says blood can increase in the body to the point that hemoglobin levels can go high to 20gm/deciliter, yet one should have 5.7 liters of blood.

This will necessitate donating to regulate one's blood and avoid the side effects of having too much blood in the body.

"When one donates blood, the body can manufacture new bone marrow cells and regulate iron cell production. Also, when the blood becomes thick, donating it will help," he adds.

When blood is donated, it is screened, and one can get to know their HIV serostatus, their blood group, Hepatitis B and C status, and when they know their status, they can plan how to continue living.

Atajja says part of this screening is a way of assuring the blood recipients following the misconception that they will react to the blood they will get, explaining that for a person to receive blood, compatibility tests must be done before a transfusion.

For a person to be allowed to donate blood, they should be physically, mentally, and emotionally healthy and should not have any chronic diseases like hypertension, diabetes, or epilepsy.

They should not have any sexually transmitted infections, and if found with any, they are put on therapy, and when they are healed, they can be allowed to donate.

Atajja says the Rotary Blood Bank has been supporting different bodies conducting research and data collection when their concepts involve blood transfusion.

"We also seek to ensure the medical students in the blood transfusion field are adequately trained and are taken through all the processes done by the blood bank," he says.

They also plan to partner with different researchers studying different diseases found among blood donors, like HIV, Hepatitis, and syphilis, and how they can use blood to help cancer patients.

"The cancer patients are the biggest group that needs blood products daily. They need platelets, frozen plasma, blood cells, and whole blood." Says Atajja.

As a way of boosting the blood donation drive in Uganda, the Rotary Club has been running initiatives such as printing banners and brochures that talk about the importance of blood donation and opening up donation clubs in schools, colleges, universities, and organizations to help engage the community and ensure information is disseminated to the people on the importance of blood donation.

They have also been engaging the media in informing people about the urgency of the need for blood donations.

Atajja says that as a result, the Mengo Blood Bank has been receiving walk-in donors who come to donate. They have also been engaging different communities through mobile teams that go into the community and meet the blood donors where they are.

This has boosted the blood capacity and, at the same time, created a storage challenge in the blood bank, which has brought about the need for the expansion of facilities and the construction of another blood bank that can store the blood collected in the communities.

"We have a good field team willing to collect as many units as possible, but sometimes when they bring in blood, all the refrigerators are full with no space left to store the collected blood," he adds.

Dr Richard Kalungi Kirumira, a medical doctor and a member of the Rotary Club of Kampala South, says to solve the storage challenge in the blood bank, the Rotary Club of Uganda is working towards getting a Global Grant from Rotary International to increase the storage facilities required.

"The blood shortage in Uganda is quite big, with over 100,000 units, and the Rotary Club is rallying friends within and outside Uganda to support us in donating blood and also help us grow the facility to see if we can have another blood bank," he says.

The Rotary District in Uganda started the Rotary Blood Bank under the past District Governor, Emmanuel Katongole. Once the establishment was started, other partners were involved to contribute their expertise and to obtain the Rotary Global Grant, which is given through the Rotary Foundation to support activities within Rotary.