The Federal Government says it will establish two blood component production centres by 2013 in order to get maximum benefits from every unit of blood donated.
The Minister of Health, Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu, disclosed this in Abuja on Thursday while briefing newsmen on the occasion of the World Blood Donation Day.
Chukwu said the two centres would serve as pilot sites while efforts would be intensified to scale up the services.
He said that government had ordered the distribution of 80 blood bank refrigerating units to hospitals and blood transfusion centres nationwide.
“To strengthen the coordination role of the National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) at the national level and ensure quality and safety of blood and blood products as well as best transfusion practices, the existing draft legislative bill has been reviewed in pursuance of a legislative backing for the National Blood Transfusion Service.
“I have approved that all hospitals should have blood transfusion committees to ensure the effective implementation of the National Blood Policy and operational guides on the rational use of blood in hospitals.
“And I urge all hospitals to institute a haemovigilance system to monitor and improve the safety of the transfusion process in our hospitals.’’
Chukwu said 60 per cent of all blood donations in the country was from commercial donors, while 30 per cent was from family replacement and only 10 per cent came from voluntary donors.
He called on Nigerians to be their brother’s keeper by donating blood as the country required 1,336,000 units of blood annually.
He said approximately 1,130,000 units of blood were collected annually through the various types of donations, leaving a deficit of more than 206,000 units.
Chukwu appealed to communities to be part of voluntary blood donations through community donor mobilisation initiatives and called on women to embrace blood donation, saying that available statistics revealed that less than 25 per cent of blood donors in Nigeria were women.
Also speaking, the World Health Organisation Country Representative in Nigeria, Dr David Okello said WHO was committed to helping to improve blood transfusion safety in general and increasing blood collection from voluntary and regular donors.
He called on countries to accelerate efforts at mapping out new strategies to convert family donors into voluntary, regular donor.
Okello said donating blood was an act of generosity, solidarity and humanity.
The Country Director of the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr Okey Nwanyanwu in his good will message, urged the federal government to provide the needed equipment for proper screening of donated blood.
NAN reports that the theme of the 2012 World Blood Donate Day is “Every blood donor is a hero”. ?
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