Rotary Club Of Accra Ridge In Blood Donation Drive Campaign

The Rotary Club of Accra Ridge in partnership with the Rotary Club of Accra, and the National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) has held the 11th National Blood Donor’s Day, and the launch of this year’s Blood Donation Campaign under the theme, “More Blood, More Life.”

The four-week campaign, which is held nationally, is expected that enough blood would be collected nationally to fill the blood banks towards the Christmas season, a period that is when regrettably considered as most accidents prone period.

“Every two seconds someone in Ghana will need a blood transfusion. Blood transfusions are used for trauma victims - due to accidents and burns, heart surgery, organ transplants, women with complications during childbirth, newborns and premature babies and patients receiving treatment for leukaemia, cancer or other diseases such as sickle cell disease and thalassemia.

“The National Blood Service needs about 250,000 pints of blood per year to cater for the health needs of patients but currently struggles to achieve a three-day supply at a time. As we draw towards the yuletide season, the increase in road accidents gives rise to a huge demand the Service cannot handle alone,” Leninsor Kakraba-Quarshie, President of the Club declared.

She noted that the blood donation exercise was aimed at corporate bodies and individuals who were donating for the first time and to bring to attention the dire situation being faced by the NBTS and the need to increase the number of regular voluntary non-paid donors.

Ms Kakrabah-Quarshie mentioned that the club got involved to show that voluntary non-paid donations were easy to do and “we all need to get involved to ensure that more lives are saved quicker”.

Mr. Tetteh Carboo, Donor Services Manager of NBTS indicated that blood can only last for 35 days and thereafter discarded. He denied that nobody sold blood but in order to ensure replenishment, recipients were asked to pay one-third of the cost of the blood.

According to him, in critical situations, a family member was made to donate to replace the one being used for the patient. He assured Ghanaians of proper use of the blood they donated.

Mr. Carboo noted that the solution to the acute shortage of blood lies in Ghanaians being altruistic donors. “You walk in, donate and end of story; but no, we want to come in and donate for money, we want to donate for milo, we want to donate for hampers, we want to donate for T-Shirts and when we cannot supply these things, we cannot sustain their interest.”