Out of a monthly need estimated at 6,000 bags of blood, the quantity available in this hospital formation is around 1,000 bags.
It’s not rushing at the blood bank of Laquintinie hospital in Douala this June 14, 2022. On the occasion of blood donation day, just a few volunteer donors are present. They came to mark this day with their presence and encourage each other to donate their blood.
« We came as usual to encourage people to donate some blood, and to celebrate blood donors. Giving blood is a gesture that can save lives. The blood you donate can later save your child, parent, friend, or even yourself. This is why it is good that blood is always available at the blood bank of the Laquintinie hospital in Douala “, notes the president of the association of voluntary blood donors, Chrétien Kuetche Talla. An association that has about forty voluntary donors.
A blood that is not always available in this hospital formation. Hold. ” As for blood donation at the Laquintinie hospital, the estimated needs are around 6,000 bags per month. However, currently, we turn around 1000 pockets per month. This is to say that it is very insufficient to cover the real needs of the hospital “, laments the head of the blood bank, Dr. Christiane Medi Sike. A situation made even more complicated by the very small number of voluntary donors.
« In terms of volunteer donors, the hospital is less than 1% volunteer donors. Therefore, 99% of donors are replacement donors; people who, because they need blood, come with other people to replace the blood they have taken at the hospital. However, the ideal for a blood bank is to have 100% voluntary donors, therefore, people who come every three or four months voluntarily to give their blood “, she notes.
A deficit that even the strategies put in place fail to fill. Among these, mobile and fixed campaigns to have the maximum number of blood donors; blood donor cards offered to people who donate blood, to encourage them to do so, and with many advantages.
Said cards, for example, exempt the blood donor from the obligation to have two surrogate donors if he has to undergo a blood transfusion. This is all the more so since finding an eligible donor is not always easy, given the conditions to be fulfilled in order to donate blood.
« You must be between 18 and 65 years old; be at least 50kg; have a particular physiological situation. And so, for a woman, not being pregnant, not breastfeeding, not having her period says Dr. Christiane Medi Sike, according to whom the most available groups are 0+ and A+, and the rarest are the AB negative and 0 negative groups.
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