To mark the World Blood Donor Day, the World Health Organization (WHO) is today launching a new initiative to improve the availability and use of safe blood to save the lives of women during and after childbirth.
The initiative is the beginning of a broader blood safety agenda redefined in Ottawa this week and aiming to work towards universal access to safe blood transfusion in support of the Millennium Development Goals.WHO will also release data collected from 172 countries on trends in blood donation, access and testing.
Globally, more than 500 000 women die each year during pregnancy, childbirth or in the postpartum period – 99 percent of them in the developing world. An estimated 25 percent of those deaths are caused by severe bleeding during childbirth, making this the most common cause of maternal mortality.
Severe bleeding during delivery or after childbirth contributes to around 34 percent of maternal deaths in Africa, 31 percent in Asia and 21 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean.
As pregnant women are one of the main groups of patients requiring blood transfusion in developing countries, together with children they are particularly vulnerable to blood shortages and to HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C infections through unsafe blood.
"If current trends continue, the world will fail to meet target 5 of the Millennium Development Goals to reduce maternal mortality," said Dr Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General in a statement. "We must do everything we can to improve the chances of women during and after childbirth."
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The Global Initiative on Safe Blood for Safe Motherhood aims to improve access to safe blood to manage pregnancy-related complications as part of a comprehensive approach to maternal care. This includes good antenatal care, prevention and timely treatment of anaemia, assessment of the need for transfusion and safe blood transfusion given only when really required.
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Out of 80 countries that have donation rates of less than one percent of the population (fewer than 10 donations per thousand people), 79 are in developing regions; it is generally recommended that 1-3 percent of the population give blood to meet a country's needs.
The WHO survey conducted in 172 countries, covering 95 percent of the world's population and based on 2004 data, shows that some progress has been made since the beginning of the millennium towards ensuring a safer, more adequate supply of blood.
One of the survey's indicators was the implementation of voluntary, unpaid blood donation, which remains a mainstay of WHO recommendations to ensure a safe and sufficient blood supply.
In 2004, 50 countries had achieved 100 percent voluntary unpaid blood donation, compared with 39 countries in 2002. Three of the 11 new countries achieving this are categorized as least developed. More and more countries are moving towards voluntary blood donation. In 2002, 63 countries were collecting less than 25 percent of their blood from voluntary unpaid donors. By 2004, this had fallen to 46 countries.
Testing of blood for major infections such as HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B and C is also increasing, although in many countries there are few indicators showing if the testing is carried out according to quality assured procedures. Out of 40 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, 28 countries have yet to establish national quality systems.
Forty-one of 148 countries that provided data on screening for transfusion-transmissible infections were not able to screen the donated blood for one or more of the markers.
Source-ANI
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