World Blood Donor Day:

Sri Lanka makes giant strides in transfusion

by Manjula Fernando

Sri Lanka being selected by the World Health Organisation to host the 11th global event of World Blood Donor Day this year is a monumental achievement that will honor the success story of Sri Lanka's National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) which has evolved from a single room to a vast network .

Blood donation in Sri Lanka was known following an appeal for blood to save the life of former prime minister S.W.R.D.Bandaranaike who was shot by a mindless gunman in 1959. The blood bank then was a single room located near the surgical unit of the National Hospital Colombo, known at the time as the Colombo General Hospital. Today it has grown into a centrally coordinated transfusion service with nearly 100 hospital based blood banks.

Head of Quality Management Section, National Blood Centre, Dr.Kumudu Sri Kuruppu said WHO considers Sri Lanka as one of the model developing countries in the Asian region which has achieved vast strides in the area of blood transfusion.

“WHO promotes its member countries to have a safe blood collection system based on a 100% voluntary donors.”

In most of the countries, including the West the patients’ relatives are compelled to donate blood when ever required. By 2012 about 99.4 % of the blood collections in Sri Lanka were from voluntary donors. In 2013 this has reached the 100% mark.

WHO's goal is for all countries to obtain their blood from voluntary unpaid donors by 2020. According to WHO statistics, by 2014, 60 countries have their national blood supplies based on 99-100% voluntary unpaid donations.

There is however, 73 countries yet to come on board. Blood transfusion can help patients suffering from life threatening conditions live longer and with higher quality of life. It also supports complex medical and surgical procedures as well as safe childbirth.

The reason to promote voluntary donor collection is to minimise the spread of infectious diseases such as HIV due to coerced donations such as forcing the relatives to donate blood when a person is undergoing surgery. It has been found world over that voluntary donors are the safest donors compared to those who donate blood involuntarily.

Among the intense screening techniques used in Sri Lanka to enhance safety, are screening of donors, exclusion of high risk donors, testing donated blood for five infectious diseases - HIV, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, Malaria and Syphilis before releasing blood for transfusion.

In addition Sri Lanka has achieved most of the WHO recommended strategies for safe blood collection, testing, blood grouping, storage and transfusion. “In some areas we have equated best practices of certain developed countries.”

To uplift Sri Lanka's ranking further, an on going project aspires to introduce the latest technology in blood banking, for instance state of the art technology such as cord blood banking, molecular based HLA testing, NAT testing to provide an extra layer of protection for transfusion-transmissible-infections and introduction of frozen red cell facility. These were all instrumental for Sri Lanka to achieve the “host nation” status.

Dr. Kuruppu said throughout the years the National Blood Transfusion Service has managed to keep a steady supply of blood for state and private sector hospitals and annually around 5000 blood donation camps are organised island wide. “In 2012 we collected about 350,000 such units and in 2013 this number grew up to 380,000.”

The National Blood Center maintains a registry of regular donors and a databank of donors of rare blood groups which constitute about 5% of the total number of registered donors.

The registry of donors is currently maintained manually. An on going project aims to computerise the entire database in the coming weeks. It envisages to computerise the (NBTS) network donor registry linking the data-banks in the entire network of peripheral blood banks. National Blood Center (NBC) was established in 2006 at the present premises

in Narahenpita under a Japan Bank for International Corporation (JBIC) project.

The project guided by WHO consultants provided modern blood banking equipment to the National Centre and also for five other selected blood centers across the country.

The standard and quality of the services of the National Blood Centre have been improved with many national and international awards including, the National Health Excellence Awards 2009-2010, Taiki Akimoto 5S Awards 2010, National Green Awards 2011, National Quality Awards 2011 and ISBT Award for Developing Countries in 2012 . It has also become the first ever government health sector organization to get ISO accreditation for medical laboratories.

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[Tribute to donors]

The World Blood Donor Day pronounced by WHO is an internationally celebrated event to pay tribute to the voluntary blood donors. It takes place on June 14 every year.

Since 2004 WHO selects a country to host the world event on the basis of the achievements and quality of the transfusion service. Previously South Africa, UK, Thailand, Canada, Dubai, Australia, Spain, Argentina and France have hosted the event.

During the 2013 WBDD global event held at Paris- France, it was officially proclaimed that WHO has selected Sri Lanka to host the WBDD global event in 2014 under the theme ‘Safe Blood for Saving Mothers'.

“With just 37 maternal deaths per 100,000 births, Sri Lanka leads the region (240 deaths per 100,000 births) in maternal mortality hence the theme perfectly fits us,” Dr.Kuruppu said.

The government has declared a World Blood Donor week from June 4 to 14. The events lined up are,

-Vehicle parades already commenced on the 4th from Jaffna, Batticaloa, Trincomalee and Hambantota to reach the BMICH where the main event will be held, on June 14.

-Scientific sessions to be attended by 300 local and international experts on blood transfusion and maternal care from June 9 to 10. -A mass blood donation camp at the BMICH on June 12.

-International symposium on ‘Reducing Maternal Mortality through improved service delivery and safety for obstetric care: role of blood transfusion’ at National Blood Centre on June 13.

-Main event under the patronage of President Mahinda Rajapaksa is scheduled on June 14 at the BMICH. The program include donor felicitation, issuance of a commemorative stamp and a poster competition as well as the handing over of WBDD flag to the next host country.

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