Lagos Targets 200,000 Units Of Blood From Voluntary  Donors

Lagos State Government is targeting to increase its total number of donated blood which is presently at over 115,000 units to 200,000 units to meet its annual blood requirements and the World Health Organsation’s (WHO) recommended estimate of blood requirement per population, the Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Health, Dr. Olusegun Ogboye has said.

Ogboye, who disclosed this on Sunday while reviewing scheduled activities lined up by the Lagos State Blood Transfusion Service (LSBTS) to commemorate 2023 World Blood Donor Day in Lagos, disclosed that apart from the recorded increase in donated blood in Lagos to over 115,000 units, the LSBTS has been able to screen 100 percent of all units of blood collected in the State.

The Permanent Secretary noted that LSBTS also produces blood components including Fresh Frozen Plasma, Cryoprecipitates and Platelet Concentrates from 90 percent of voluntarily donated blood with the decentralisation of its storage to ensure easy accessibility.

Ogboye also disclosed that the LSBTS has commenced the process for complete automation in the screening and certification of blood for transfusion transmissible infections, implementation of the LSBTS Blood Inventory Management System and extended phenotyping of blood group antigens to reduce the incidence of adverse events in blood transfusion.

Speaking on scheduled activities to commemorate the year 2023 World Blood Donor Day in Lagos, the Executive Secretary of LSBTS, Dr. Biodun Osikomaiya disclosed that the Lagos State Ministry of Health, through the LSBTS, will commemorate WBBD with a three-day event comprising Youth Extravaganza, Lagos State Secondary School Student LSBTS facility tour and Symposium and Scientific Conference.

Osikomaiya further explained that a Symposium and Scientific Conference to commemorate World Blood Donor Day will hold on Wednesday, 14th June, 2023 at the Adeyemi-Bero Auditorium in Alausa Ikeja.

She said: “World blood donor day is a day of global observance, celebrated all around the world on the 14th of June yearly. This event is meant to raise awareness of the crucial need for safe blood and blood products, to thank blood donors for saving lives with their precious gift of blood and to recruit healthy individuals to be voluntary blood donors.

Osikomaiya noted that the agency is intensifying awareness, sensitisation and advocacy campaign to increase voluntary blood donation to meet the state blood requirement and safe blood transfusion services.

Expressing delight that the effort of LSBTS is yielding the desired result with an evident increase in voluntarily donated blood, she noted that one pint of donated blood can save three lives, adding that this is why efforts are being intensified by the State government to meet and surpass the State blood requirement through recruiting and retaining voluntary blood donors.

While emphasising the huge demand for blood and the need for voluntary blood donation, Osikomaiya disclosed that about 37% of the population is eligible and clinically fit to donate blood, stressing that someone is always in need of blood every two seconds.

The Executive Secretary noted that eligible citizens can donate blood by walking into any of LSBTS’s dedicated voluntary blood donation centres at General Hospital Lagos and General Hospital Gbagada or the voluntary blood donation centre at the Accident and Emergency Center, located at the old Toll Gate and the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja to donate blood at any time.