J. Mwamunyange, Special Correspondent
4 January 2006
Nairobi — Tanzania's blood bank service has set up zonal blood transfusion centres to improve the country's ability to provide blood on demand.
Two weeks ago, the Ministry of Health and the US Centres for Disease Control officially opened Mwanza's zonal blood centre, less than one week after the commissioning of the transfusion service centre in Mbeya.
Ministry of Health communications officer Nsachris Mwamwaja told The East-African that all six centres will be in place within one year.
"Opening the facility in Mwanza brought to three the number of functioning centres and we expect the other three to be ready in the near future," said Mr Mwamwaja. The others are in Kilimanjaro and Mbeya regions.
He added, "The Blood Transfusion Service Centres headquarters building in Dar es Salaam is expected to be handed over to the Ministry this month and the three other centres, to be established in Zanzibar, Tabora and Mtwara, will be ready during the year."
The blood centres - designed to draw, test and store large quantities of blood are expected to improve the country's ability to provide blood - during emergencies. Prior to the opening of the centres, 80 per cent of the blood used for transfusions came from relatives who were asked to provide patients with replacement blood.
Compared with 2001, when no single unit of blood was donated in the Southern Highland zone, 1,100 units were donated last year.
Most requests for emergency blood supplies come from regional and district hospitals where it used to support women and infants during childbirth, or provided to accident victims and patients undergoing surgery.
The new blood centres are identical in design. All are equipped with rooms to keep volunteers comfortable while they donate blood. They have fully equipped laboratories where the blood is tested for safety, type-tagged, and separated into plasma and whole blood for storage.
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