When blood is not safe, it puts the patient at the risk of transfusion-transmissible infections (TTIs) such as HIV.Blood transfusion stands as the second largest source of HIV infection among infected individuals;and in Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and syphilis infections.  In 1975, the federal government signed the World  Health Assembly Resolution that it would organize a national blood service based on  voluntary non-remunerated blood donation. Years after, it  has not happened.In the United States of America (USA) government, through the President‘s  Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) came in to support but over 40 years after, Nigeria is still relying on others to fund its blood services.

Funding of our blood services by US government: The National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) was established in 2005.Staff of the service collect blood units from voluntary donors, screen them for blood-borne infections using the fourth generation ELISA technology and then give it to those who need it for use. The American government through PEPFAR was funding the service from 2005 till last year when it withdrew its services.  During the 10 years that the US government funded the service, and till date, the Nigerian government did not employ staff nor properly fund the service. 

Findings by Daily Trust revealed that the US government’s funding was actually meant for programmes at NBTS but because there were no  staff to run the programmes, the funding was used  to pay the salaries of about 250 staff across the country. The American government continually called on the Nigerian government to employ its own people and pay them, but that fell on deaf ears until the foreign sponsor ended its funding in September last year. Even after the fund was withdrawn last year, Daily Trust gathered that the American government was magnanimous enough to do ‘no cost extension’ by allowing the service to use the access fees it collected to run the organisation.   To get blood from the NBTS, one pays N2,000.This access fee is actually meant for the American government by the bilateral agreement made, but they didn’t take it, and it was that money that was used to run the service till February this year when it finished.

 What is happening there since January this year? A visit to the centre showed that the place is heading for the rocks if there is no timely intervention. It may be shut down soon as what is being offered there is skeletal services. Since the money from the access fee became exhausted, the NBTS has been existing without funds. All the 250 project staff across the 17 centres in the country have not received salary from January till date.  According to a source, however, the staff who are more or less disengaged have been holding on with zeal and patriotism, saying they cannot abandon it and allow it to crumble after putting over 10 years into it.

“We have been working at very skeletal level. What we do is prorata, coming to office but not every day. We come three times or two times in a week . What we see is a decline of our services. So we still keep our doors open,” the source said. Another sad part of the blood programmes is that even the skeletal service is also being offered with the help of the American government . How? After all the support for the National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) , the American government felt it needs to attain accreditation for international standards. It decided to give the organization a very small stipend to run five centres. 
But as a result of how bad the situation of the service is because of lack of funding, the organization is now using the money to run all 17 centres in the country. That at least has left the door of the place not completely shut for Nigerians to run to for blood for now.  Some equipment were bought when the Americans were fully funding the service,  they are getting old, and the NBTS also  needs money to buy reagents, keep generators running and also keep the blood wholesome. 

World Blood Donor Day, British Government vs FG: This reporter also gathered that  neither the Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, nor the Minister of State for Health,  Dr Osagie Ehanire, have ever visited the National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) since the duo came to government last year. This negates the actions and activities of the British government because the current British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Paul Arkwright will soon visit the organisation. He also first reached out to the organization on his own, on how he and staff of the commission can donate blood as the country joins the world to mark this year’s World Blood Donor Day today. 

Recall that during the Nyanya bomb blast in 2014, the then British High Commissioner, Dr. Andrew Pocock was among the first callers at the organization to donate blood to Nigerians. It was also gathered that virtually every year the commission has reached out to the NBTS on ways to sensitize the public on blood donation and safety, as well as donate blood for Nigerians.

Bill on blood services : A bill has also been drafted to regulate blood practice in Nigeria; it is almost five years old. The process for the bill was commenced by the former Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, and the current minister is supposed to take it to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting but he has not done that till date.

Is there no budgetary allocation in the health budget for NBTS?  Daily Trust learnt that sometimes it is zero allocation and at times N50 million is budgeted, out of which the final money released may be just N10 or N20 million to take care of the whole country, which is not even up to the amount just one of the 17 centres uses in a year. When contacted and asked about the findings, the National Coordinator, National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS), Dr. Oluwatoyin Smith, said it is true that the American government, through PEPFAR, has withdrawn funding.

However, she said funding is available from government in the 2016 Capital Budget “but it is however grossly inadequate which is also a general problem in the health sector.”  Commenting on the issue, Idris Salihu, country director of Safe Blood for Africa Foundation, said the ideal thing is for the government of every country to fund its blood service.  “The US government has supported the National Blood Service for over 10 years now and government is still not responding. We don’t know why PEPFAR is slowing down but naturally when a donor agency is supporting a government for a while, they expect that government should do what is called counterpart funding or at least to respond positively- that the money they have spent is spent wisely and it is going to complement the service delivery to the people of Nigeria,” he said .

The World Blood Donor Day today is a wakeup call to our government to rescue our blood safety service which is suffering tremendously at the national service, public and private hospitals, in order to prevent donors from passing diseases to those who need transfusion.

Source:Dailytrust Nigeria