Last week, the Executive Director of the Uganda Blood Transfusion Services Dr. Dorothy Kyeyune told NTV that the National Blood Bank in Kampala was running dry with a deficit of 1.2 billion shillings needed for fuel to enable the institution to collect blood from donors across the country. “Our budget was, the travel budget was reduced already by 200 million and we started off with the negative. We had planned to use this money to help us in our blood collection operations in the communities.”
In the face of such National Blood crisis, hematologists or specialists of blood studies are encouraging the use of blood stimulating medicines that could help those who need more blood in their body system. “There are some medicines that can stimulate the formation of red blood cells from the bone marrow. We call them Erythropoietin Stimulating Agents. Erythropoietin is a hormone that is produced naturally by the kidneys but it can help stimulate the formation of extra red blood cells from the bone marrow. So we can use that in some patients.” Said, Dr. Henry Doungu – Hematologist.
A leading Hematologist, Dr. Henry Doungu attached to the Uganda Cancer Institute explained the circumstances under which these medicines can be administered. “It all depends on the cause of the low blood levels. For example here at cancer, we have patients that are becoming anemic because of the treatments we give them or because of the diseases they have that are having an effect on the centers that produce blood the bone marrow. So we need to make sure that we use other options in terms of stimulating the formation of more blood.” He said in a bid to save blood in such trying moments, blood can be drawn from expectant mothers and transfused back to them after they give birth. This is the time they need blood most. “Or any other person if they are to undergo surgery, we say okay let’s take off your blood, keep it somewhere then we will replace it after surgery.”
But such methods are rarely used in developing countries like Uganda due to the high costs involved. “If you are going to use Auto Transfusion, of course, it will be expensive to process; getting the exchange bags and making sure that it is nicely kept it might have a cost. But it wouldn’t be as expensive as we get blood from a different donor. So if we talk about the use of Plasma expands, we are going to use the same fluids that we use in the general knowledge.”
And such methods come with some side effects. “So if a person uses any of them and gets a reaction, for example, they get allergic reactions, we say don’t use that medicine again. So we always give it in accordance with doctor’s directives.” But as the first option, the doctor strongly recommends good intake of certain foods to increase the blood volume in the body without the application of drugs and injections. “Blood comes from a number of items, I would not say blood but building blocks of blood especially iron; you can get it from fruits, you can get it from green leafy vegetables, you can get from animal products like meat, beef or liver. You can get all those from the food that you eat.” Dr. Doungu also discourages the resort to desperate measures by some people who take animal blood to boost their blood levels. But even when such options can be considered, human blood remains the best option if there is the need for blood transfusion.
