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Front Page Lives at risk as blood bank driesby Nyamanoko Bwire and Staff Writer Mount Meru Hospital which is the referral health facility for both Arusha and Manyara regions has run out of supply of human blood for transfusion. The hospital’s Doctor In-charge, Dr. Omar Chande said as a result of the situation, some people with urgent need for blood transfusion have been dying at the hospital. Dr. Chande revealed that most of these deaths were of younger children, aged five years and below, who normally suffer from anaemia caused by Malaria. Other victims of the situation are people who get seriously injured in accidents. "When the patient’s problem is just the lack of blood, the only treatment required here is blood replacement, but if there is no blood for transfusion, the person will definitely die", said Doctor Chande. Mount Meru hospital requires at least 200 units of blood every month for ordinary cases of transfusion but more units are usually needed for emergence cases like accidents. "In the past we used to employ alternative means of blood replacement by the infusion of plasma expander but this is no longer applicable today", said the doctor. Dr. Chande explained that the current shortage of blood at Mount Meru hospital was due to the fact that nowadays people no longer volunteer to donate blood. Blood donation, according to the doctor, is becoming a sensitive issue because people fear for their health especially in the wake of the HIV-AIDS pandemic. "Even close relatives of serious patients in need of blood are hesitant to donate blood .In fact, most of them ask the hospital to give their patients blood and promise to pay later", he added. Most people, however, don’t bother to pay after recovery. Diseases that cause high blood losses include neutropenia, sickle cell diseases, bleeding disorders and injuries.
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