The National Blood Service (NBS) says Ghana is ready to prepare convalescent plasma (CP) from recovered COVID-19 patients for transfusion, by way of an empirical treatment for people suffering from life-threatening variations of the infection.
The chief executive officer of the National Blood Service, Dr Justina Ansah, who disclosed this, said the intervention was based on research proving that patients who had recovered from disease outbreaks such as COVID-19 have a robust immune response to infections.
The antibodies in the plasma of recovered patients could, therefore, be transfused to other COVID-19 patients to assist their recovery from the infection.
The CEO, who made this announcement at a virtual event to commemorate 2020 World Blood Donor Day in Accra, therefore encouraged all recovered COVID-19 patients to step forward and donate plasma to save the lives of other patients in critical condition.
The day is observed annually on 14 June to express appreciation to voluntary blood donors for their life-saving gift of blood, and to raise awareness of the global need for safe blood and how everyone can contribute.
This year’s day is on the theme “Safe Blood Saves Lives” and runs under the slogan “Give blood and make the world a healthier place”.
Dr Ansah said the NBS is working closely with the Ministry of Health, Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) and the COVID-19 Treatment Team to fight the disease.
“All the needed machines to aid the collections and protocols are available,” she said, “but we are waiting for the funds to acquire the consumables to start.
“There is no vaccine yet, so [convalescent plasma] is the only treatment and people are recovering worldwide through this medium.”
Quality assurance is the challenge
Neema Rusibamayila Kimambo, the World Health Organization country representative for Ghana, commended blood donors for their continuous voluntary support to save lives.
However, she remarked that the biggest challenge with the convalescent plasma approach in many African countries was insufficient resources of national blood services to collect, process and store this blood safely and in a quality-assured manner.
“But the current pandemic is also an opportunity to improve this situation,” she said. “Kenya, for instance, has allocated a portion of funding from the World Bank specifically to improve blood services during the pandemic.”
Dr Kimambo said universal access to safe blood is a critical component of a resilient health system and contributes to achieving universal health coverage.
“In the Africa region, countries are making progress in improving access to quality-assured blood and blood products,” she said.
“At WHO, we are also exploring partnerships with Facebook to set up a regional Blood Donations features, and 15 countries have expressed interest in piloting this tool.
“This feature connects blood donors with nearby opportunities to donate in collaboration with approved blood banks.”
WHO guidelines
Dr Kimambo urged the government to collaborate with blood donor associations and non-governmental organisations to increase investment in blood transfusion services, in line with WHO guidelines.
The event witnessed the launch of a blood donation video, which will be showing on various channels to encourage more people to donate blood voluntarily.
The National Blood Service says the total units of blood collected and supplied in the first five months of this year has declined by 21 per cent compared to last year’s total for the same period.
Last year, the figure was 73,063 units; this has declined to 57,268 for this year.
