December 18, 2017 By Joseph S. Margai
FOCUS 1000, Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MOHS) and United Nations (UN) agencies last Friday, at Buxton Hall on Charles Street in Freetown, urged Sierra Leoneans to donate blood in order to save lives.
Alhaji Bailor Jalloh, Chief Executive Officer of FOCUS 1000, encouraged every Sierra Leonean to donate blood in order to save the lives of women and children.
He called on traditional healers, whom he referred to as healers but not killers, traders, unionists, the media, among others, to encourage their members to donate blood to save lives.
Dr. Marcella Coker, Programme Manager National Safe Blood Services in the Directorate of Hospitals and Laboratories, said without blood humans would not survive.
“In Sierra Leone we don’t sell blood but we donate. In some places, a minimal fee is paid to the donors. Anytime you donate blood, you are saving thousands of lives. Most of our mothers and children die a lot because they don’t have blood. We should move away from selling blood but donate at all times,” she appealed.
Lead Doctor for Reproductive and Maternal Health at World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr. Fatu Fornah said Sierra Leone perennially top maternal and infant mortality rate.
“Bleeding and malaria are the major causes of death for pregnant women and children respectively. We need blood to save lives but most people are afraid to donate blood, which is very bad,” she said.
She said WHO, in collaboration with MOHS, has set up a maternal death surveillance response which is to help identify the causes of death among children and women, noting that since commencement they have discovered that most deaths are as a result of the loss of blood.
Reproductive Health Technical Specialist at UNFPA, Dr. Riad Mamud said in his country of birth, where he donated blood 71 times, they were having 700 cases of maternal mortalities per year but it was reduced to 176 because of wiliness of individuals to donate blood.
He said every year the world loses 10,000 mothers mainly because of bleeding, but if there is blood to replace the bleeding, women would be saved.
“Sierra Leone has seven million people and if 1% of that population donates blood, we will have enough blood to save our mothers and children,” he said.