Blood transfusions help save thousands of lives every year in Afghanistan. Given the intensifying conflict in many parts of the country, more people than ever rely on the availability of safe blood transfusion services. With the support of the EU's European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations department (ECHO), the World Health Organization supports Afghanistan’s blood banks to ensure safe and efficient services.
“I give blood every 3 months in this hospital because I want to save lives and help my fellow Afghans,” said Gulab Shah as he was donating blood at the Herat Regional Hospital where the World Health Organization (WHO) recently scaled up blood transfusion services. “I notice a big difference in this hospital from last year: its capacity, equipment and overall quality of services have improved a lot.”
In the past year, thanks to funding from the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations department (ECHO), WHO has equipped 10 provincial and regional hospitals with necessary supplies to strengthen blood transfusion services and to enable them to gather, test, store and preserve blood safely and effectively.
“I have been working in this blood bank for 31 years and this is the first time we have such advanced equipment,” said Faiz Ahmad Turabi, head of the blood bank at the Herat Regional Hospital. "We have of course all been trained by WHO on how operate this new equipment. This enables new operations, like separating plasma and platelets, which is a huge achievement.”
Plasma separation, which can be used to treat a range of diseases, had also not been available in Afghanistan before WHO and ECHO joined forces to strengthen the country’s blood banks. Now, a single unit of blood can be used to benefit several patients.
In addition to providing equipment and supplies to guarantee the effective and safe operation of blood banks, in the past year WHO has trained 31 blood bank staff from 19 provinces on plasma separation and safe blood transfusions.
“WHO’s partnership with ECHO has been crucial in allowing us to build the capacity of Afghanistan’s blood banks and blood transfusion services over the past 4 years,” said Dr Richard Peeperkorn, WHO Country Representative in Afghanistan. “Through this project we have been able to ensure timely access to safe and sufficient supplies of blood and blood products and good transfusion practices to meet patients’ needs.”
“Most of the donated blood goes to trauma cases due to conflict and other emergencies, but there is a dire need for more voluntary blood donors to meet demand in Afghanistan, as a lot of blood is also needed for C-sections, surgeries, children with anaemia and for women with severe pregnancy complications,” adds Dr Dauod Altaf, Emergency Coordinator at WHO Afghanistan.
With the support of ECHO, WHO continues to support safe blood donation in Afghanistan through training health care providers on blood transfusion and blood bank management, supporting the blood transfusion service surveillance system and developing national guidelines and standards for blood transfusion.
Last updated
15/09/2017