Coping with COVID-19 pandemic in blood transfusion services in West Africa: the need to restrategize

Okoroiwu, Henshaw Uchechi; Okafor, Ifeyinwa Maryann; Asemota, Enosakhare Aiyudubie; Ogar, Christopher Ogar; Uchendu, Ikenna Kingsley

doi:10.1016/j.htct.2021.01.005

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Hematology, Transfusion and Cell Therapy

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Sumário

Original articles • Hematol., Transfus. Cell Ther. 43 (2) • Apr-Jun 2021 • https://doi.org/10.1016/j.htct.2021.01.005 copy

Coping with COVID-19 pandemic in blood transfusion services in West Africa: the need to restrategize

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

ABSTRACT

Introduction

The West African region has been lagging in terms of the availability of, and accessibility to, safe blood. According to the 2016 World Health Organization (WHO) Global Status Report on Blood Safety and Availability, none of the West African countries met the WHO benchmark of 10 blood units per 1000 inhabitants. This study is aimed at discussing the blood transfusion status of West African countries in the pre-COVID-19 period and analyze the capacity to respond to the COVID-19 blood crisis, as well as to outline the panacea.

Methods

Secondary data were extracted from published reports, journal articles and web pages, reviewed and analyzed.

Result

All the West African countries have recorded confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths. The confirmed cases have reached 55,697, with 1069 deaths and a fatality rate of 1.9%, as of June 17, 2020. The assessed countries lagged in most of the WHO benchmarks for effective blood transfusion services.

Conclusion

Blood transfusion services in the West African region lacked the basic benchmark practice and policy, are not coordinated and may find it hard to tackle the blood transfusion crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords
COVID-19; Coronavirus; SARS-CoV-2; Blood transfusion; West Africa

Country	Population	Date of index case (2020)	Confirmed cases	Confirmed deaths	New cases	Fatality (%)
Benin	12,123,200	March 16	532	9	49	1.7
Burkina Faso	20,903,273	March 9	895	53	1	5.9
Cape Verde	555,987	March 20	781	7	21	0.9
Cote d'Ivoire	26,378,274	March 11	5679	46	595	0.8
Gambia	2,416,668	March 17	34	1	6	0.2.9
Ghana	31,072,940	March 12	12,193	58	229	0.5
Guinea Conakry	13,132,795	March 13	4639	26	67	0.6
Guinea Bissau	1,968,001	March 25	1492	15	32	1.0
Liberia	5,057,681	March 16	509	33	11	6.5
Mali	20,250,833	March 25	1885	106	25	5.6
Mauritania	4,649,658	March 13	1887	91	104	4.8
Niger	24,206,644	March 19	1016	66	36	6.5
Nigeria	206,139,589	February 27	17,146	424	490	2.5
Senegal	16,743,927	March 2	5247	70	157	1.3
Sierra Leone	7,976,983	March 31	1225	51	49	4.2
Togo	8,278,724	March 6	537	13	6	2.4

Country	Donation per 1000 inhabitants	Proportion of voluntary donations (%)	No. of hospitals performing blood transfusion	No. of hospitals performing component preparation	National blood policy
Benin	6.7	92.1	50	5	Absent
Burkina Faso	3.7	100	93	4	Absent
Cape Verde	5.6	77.3	6	6	Present
Cote d'Ivoire	4.4	100	200	8	Present
Gambia	7.2	24.1	11	0	Present
Ghana	5.4	27.1	257	3	Present
Guinea Conakry	2.4	14.7	42	1	Present
Guinea Bissau	2.7	19.9	7	7	Present
Liberia	No data	No data	38	0	Absent
Mali	3.1	30.4	13	3	Present
Mauritania	2.5	31.3	24^b b Data from 2012.	1	Present
Niger	3.5	36.3	47	1	Present
Nigeria	No data	94.2^a a Data from only NBTS Abuja.	22^c c Data from 2011.	1	Present
Senegal	4.5	79.4	141	2	Present
Sierra Leone	5.2	9.7	30	0	Present
Togo	5.9	98.3	No data	1	Present

Country	Transfusion-transmissible infection
Country	HIV (%)	HBV (%)	HCV (%)	Syphilis
Benin	1.9	7.4	4.9	1.5
Burkina Faso	2.2	9.7	4.8	1.7
Cape Verde	0.1	1.6	0.1	0.6
Cote d'Ivoire	0.4	5.6	1.7	0.6
Gambia	No data	No data	No data	No data
Ghana	2.4	6.9	2.2	4.2
Guinea Conakry	2.7	7.7	1.0	1.1
Guinea Bissau	6.7	11.5	0.7	0.1
Liberia	No data	No data	No data	No data
Mali	2.1	17.4	3.0	<0.1
Mauritania	0.2	16.6	0	0.2
Niger	2.3	8.5	1.5	1.0
Nigeria	1.4	5.1	2.0	0.8
Senegal	0.2	9.7	0.2	0.2
Sierra Leone	4.6	9.5	1.2	1.6
Togo	0.8	4.5	<0.1	0.2

Country	Proportion of blood units processed into components (%)	Proportion of donated units screened for TTIs
Country	Proportion of blood units processed into components (%)	HIV (%)	HBV (%)	HCV (%)	Syphilis (%)
Benin	No data	100	100	100	100
Burkina Faso	91.4	100	100	100	100
Cape Verde	98.9	100	100	100	100
Cote d'Ivoire	94.5	100	100	100	100
Gambia	0	100	25.9	17.5	No data
Ghana	16.6	100	100	100	100
Guinea Conakry	0.8	100	100	100	100
Guinea Bissau	0	100	100	100	100
Liberia	0	100	100	100	82.1
Mali	32.1	100	100	100	100
Mauritania	100	100	100	100	100
Niger	1.6	100	100	100	100
Nigeria	No data	100	100	100	100
Senegal	51.8	100	100	100	100
Sierra Leone	0	100	100	100	100
Togo	66.4	100	100	100	66.4

Associação Brasileira de Hematologia, Hemoterapia e Terapia Celular (ABHH) R. Dr. Diogo de Faria, 775 cj 133, 04037-002, São Paulo / SP - Brasil - São Paulo - SP - Brazil
E-mail: htct@abhh.org.br

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[1] *Corresponding author at: Haematology Unit, Department of Medical Laboratory Science, University of Calabar, Nigeria. E-mail address: okoroiwuhenshaw@gmail.com(H.U. Okoroiwu).