Kampala, 3rd July 2014:- Blood transfusion as a part of life saving health intervention cannot be overemphasized. Making quality assured blood available to all hospital at all time of the year is among the objectives of any national blood transfusion programme.

Today, Dr. Wondimagegnehu Alemu, the WHO Representative to Uganda handed over a vehicle and Blood Collection Bags worth USD 114,000 to Uganda Blood Transmission Services (UBTS), which were received by Dr. Dorothy Kyeyune, the UBTS Director. Dr. Alemu emphasized the need to reach out to potential blood donors that might not know that they could donate blood. He encouraged the creation of awareness about blood donation.

With funding from UKAID through the UN Joint Program on Population, WHO is providing support to UBTS to implement the project on “saving lives of mothers and children”, whose main aim is to save lives by increasing blood collection capacity and availability in Uganda.

“For many patients, blood transfusion is the only means of survival. However, in many hospitals and health centres in the country, blood is not always available when needed most. Lack of timely access to blood is a major cause of death in women suffering from bleeding linked to pregnancy-related complications, children suffering from severe anaemia due to malaria and malnutrition, victims of trauma and accidents and patients suffering from chronic diseases.” Dr. Alemu said

Earlier in the week, WHO handed over clinical and laboratory supplies for new vaccine sentinel site surveillance activities to the Uganda National Expanded Programme on Immunization (UNEPI) to  support efforts to curb Pediatric Bacterial Meningitis (PBM) and Pneumococcal Bacteria. In line with that, WHO country office has continued to support MoH through the four sentinel sites to conduct timely case detection and laboratory investigation on a regular basis. This has been through provision of basic laboratory reagents and clinical supplies to ensure continuity of the surveillance system for suspected PBM cases in children under 5 years. Handing over the items, Dr Annet Kisakye informed UNEPI that the next consignment of supplies  to cover the period of July to December 2014 had been procured. This will ensure that there is no interruption in detecting and investigating all suspected Paediatric Bacterial Meningitis cases and severe pneumococcal diseases in the children under 5 years.

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For more information please contact:

Benjamin Sensasi, Health Promotion Adviser
WHO Country Office 
Tel 256-414-335500 
Email: sensasIb@.who.int