By Brian Ssenoga
Despite frequent reports from
hospital managers about lack of enough blood across the country, Uganda
has been declared top of the World Health Organisation list of African
countries with the safest and highest blood donation.
President Museveni greets President Kagame at Entebbe State House yesterday. PHOTO BY PPU
The country director for
Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr Tadesse Wuhib, said
Uganda collects safe blood from voluntary low risk no-remunerated
repeating blood donors (VNRBDs).
“The blood safety standards
recommended by the WHO require that more than 50 per cent of collected
blood -a standard few countries are able to attain.
But the Uganda Blood
Transfusion Services has achieved 100 per cent blood collection from
VNRBDs,” Dr Tadesse said. He made the remarks while marking the World
blood donor Day in Entebbe yesterday.
To commemorate the day, UBTS
aims at raising awareness about the importance of having adequate
supplies of safe blood and encourage more volunteers to donate blood
and save lives.
Dr Tadesse also said HIV
sero-prevalence among VNRBD donors decreased significantly from 2.55
per cent in 2002 to 0.79 per cent in 2009 as a result of vigorous
programmes of blood donor education, selection, counseling, care, and
retention of safe donors by the Uganda Blood Transfusion Services.
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