“The SW Region Needs At Least 31,000 Pines Of Blood”

Doctor, your office was recently created as a national representation to handle blood donation in the South West Region. How do you work out that purpose?
First, I begin with the central level where the National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) was created by a decree of 12 February 2019.  Its functioning was legalised with its head office stationed at Bastos in Yaounde. In 2023,  another decree of 8 May, created the regional offices and deployed staff to that effect. The regions are charged with representing the NBTS effectively, communicating about blood transfusion, coordinating and encouraging blood donation, building a sustainable network, and monitoring and evaluating the blood donation activities as well as the effectiveness of Blood Banks in the Regional Health facilities.

Where are these Blood Banks located and how do you channel blood from the donors?
The Region has various health districts and the Blood Banks are stationed in health facilities within these districts. The South West Region has 204 public health facilities but we currently have just 20 blood banks to serve the entire Region. Amongst the six administrative Divisions in the Region, the Blood Banks are stationed in Fako, Meme, Kupe-Muanenguba and Manyu Divisions only. First of all, the mission of the National Blood Transmission Service is to ensure that we have safe and quality blood throughout the national territory. According to the Ministry of Health, Cameroon needs over 400,000 pines of blood annually. The South West Region needs at least 31,000 pines of blood but we have not been able to achieve half of that amount. Statistically, we collected 11,000 pines of blood in 2022. The donation dropped to 10,071 pines of blood in 2023.

What innovations has the blood transfusion unit brought to the Region?
They have made our acti...