The Kenya National Blood Transfusion, Tissue, and Human Organ Transplant Services (KNBTS) has acknowledged that measures to increase blood collection this year have been put in place as part of the department’s ongoing reforms.
Chief Executive Nduku Kilonzo stated that a national policy is already in place to facilitate future blood drives in a more efficient, transparent and research-based program.
“The policy aims to close gaps that exist to provide for Kenya policy framework upon which the KNBTS should be able to do blood drives,” she said during a blood drive outside the National Archives in Nairobi that coincided with Valentine’s Day.
However, KNBTS expressed optimism that the measures which have been put in place are likely to see more blood collected this year.
The country collected 297,000 units of blood last year the highest collection despite not able to meet the annual requirement of one million units.
Every year, the country requires between 500,000 and a million units of blood, but KNBTS collects less than a quarter of that volume.
Nduku revealed that the country requires at least a million pints of blood each year creating a huge gap that requires immediate attention.
Recognizing requirements “When we say unfulfilled, we mean that there is a need to fill about 85 per cent of the country’s daily need for blood,” she explained.
She stated that in order to fill these gaps, KNBTS needed to reorganize its collection strategy.
“Imagine every surgery requires standby blood; a mother delivering, chemotherapy and dialysis going somewhere in the Kenyan hospitals; and a lot of these medical care programmes require transfusion; whether blood or its components,” she noted emphasising the need for readily available blood cannot be gainsaid.
According to Nduku, the new policy allows KNBTS to launch a number of programs, all or most of which are aimed at providing blood where and when it is needed.
She revealed that one of those programs, which began this month, was a process to understand the country’s clinical blood needs.
“We don’t know for instance where is it that we have more sickle cell anaemia or any other blood-related condition across the country. This calls for standby blood and its components,” she said.
Nduku said the government has increased the blood banking capacity from 24,000 units of blood and blood products to 50,000 units with nine cold rooms across the country in response to the demand.
She said this is captured in the renewed policy framework whose key highlights include the reality that blood and organs are national resources meaning that their availability is important.
“The policy outlines that these products be able to be transported across different hospitals because it is a fact that blood comes in different group types across counties in different public health facilities; both private and public,” she said.
The policy, she said gives the country an opportunity to have an emergency preparedness for any fatal eventuality.
The Ministry of Health in March 2020 had requested the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to probe a syndicate of criminals involved in the theft of donated blood after it emerged the country’s blood bank is facing an acute shortage.
Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe noted that blood donated by Kenyans had been traced to Somalia and other neighbouring countries in what appeared to be a case of a criminal syndicate diverting the much-needed commodity for monetary gain.
Kagwe specified there was blood shortage crisis occasioned by people he termed as immoral blood auctioneers, who have ignored the plight of Kenyans.
“We have asked the DCI to intervene,” the CS told a press conference on Thursday, ahead of meeting to discuss how to seal some of the glaring loopholes.
According to statistics, only one per cent of Kenyans donated blood in the 2018/2019 fiscal year to provide 164,000 units, against the required 1 million units needed annually.
Already, Kagwe said there is a pending Bill which once enacted into the law will ensure Kenya’s blood is tamper-proof from the scavenging hands of corrupt officials.
His plans, the CS said, include making sure the blood is donated at the regional level.
“The idea is to regionalize the whole blood collection process. And one of the areas is addressing the people who give us blood,” he said.
The blood shortage was attributed to insufficient funding occasioned by end of US donor-supported outreach programme, meant to ensure more Kenyans donate blood this year.
