A Hematology consultant at the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Dr Aminu Abba Yusuf has urged people of Kano to aggressively key-in to voluntary blood donation with a view to stemming the tides of preventable deaths among women at child birth.
Dr Yusuf made the call in Kano yesterday during inauguration of the life saving blood donors’ club established by the Kano state chapter of the Nigerian Red Cross Society as part of activities marking this year’s World Red Cross/Crescent Day.
He attributed the rising cases of maternal mortality among rural women to lack of access to safe blood due to poverty, saying if the public should key into voluntary donation of blood at the designated health facilities it would help in mitigating the issues of maternal deaths in the country.
“Nigeria is one of the countries with the highest ratio of maternal death. Many women who died during child birth, died because of excessive bleeding and not able to get blood transfusion. I am appealing to the general public to participate in the activities that will make them voluntary blood donors in order to save lives.
“Many countries in the world including Nigeria cannot provide the quantity of blood that is needed by patients in hospitals, and there are instances where you have condition that we call mass casualty where so many people have injuries that would require blood transfusion, in that respect you require hundreds or even thousands units of blood. So it is important for people to donate blood in order to save lives,” he said.
Kano branch Executive Secretary of the NRCS, Alhaji Musa D. Abdullahi said the life saving blood donor club was established to assist the government and private hospitals in the state where emergency services are needed.
He said 120 volunteers had registered with the club to donate blood at the maternities and emergency wards in both private and public hospitals in the state.
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