Blood donation in Togo: overcoming reluctance to save lives

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Extract from the article: Donating blood is a vital act that saves millions of lives every year. However, despite awareness campaigns, reluctance to donate blood remains a major obstacle. What are the factors behind this reluctance, along with strategies and motivational mess

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Donating blood is a vital act that saves millions of lives every year. However, despite awareness campaigns, reluctance to donate blood remains a major obstacle. What are the factors behind this reluctance, along with strategies and motivational messages to encourage blood donation?

Reluctance to donate blood occurs when people who have been made aware of the importance of giving blood are reluctant to do so. This reluctance is often linked to unexpressed fears, preconceived ideas and personal convictions that militate against blood donation.

Factors contributing to reluctance

The main factors contributing to reluctance include preconceived ideas and fears.

Weakening and illness: Many people think that giving blood will weaken them or make them ill.

Sacredness of blood: For some, blood is sacred and should not be donated because of religious or cultural beliefs.

Risk of contracting a disease: The fear of contracting a disease through blood donation is common.

Pain of the needle: Fear of the pain caused by the needle discourages many potential donors.

Sale of blood: The perception that blood donated free of charge is sold creates mistrust.

Specific features that accentuate reluctance in Togo

There are no specific factors in Togo that make people reluctant to donate blood.The same ideas and fears are generally found everywhere, albeit to varying degrees.

Qualities of blood transfusion staff

Blood donation is governed by strict ethical principles, both for donors and for transfusion centre staff.

Voluntary: Blood donation must be a voluntary act, without pressure of any kind.

Voluntary: Donors must not receive any payment for their blood. Anonymity: The donor and recipient must not know each other's identity.

No profit : Blood must not be sold; it is provided in exchange for a small contribution to cover production costs.The staff of blood transfusion centres must demonstrate professionalism in welcoming donors, in carrying out the various tasks during a donor's stay in the establishment, and in managing any conflicts a donor may have with them, so that donors have an unforgettable experience during their stay, which will encourage them to donate regularly.The distribution of blood products should not be a CNTS activity, as is currently the case in Togo, where patients' prescriptions are brought directly to the CNTS by their parents to be dispensed.

This situation leads to long queues that turn into crowds in front of the CNTS counters. Conflicts frequently arise between blood product applicants and also between them and the distribution staff. The staff try to manage these conflicts as best they can, but if distribution were carried out according to the rules by sending blood products to hospital blood banks so that they in turn could deliver them directly to hospital patients, there would be no queues at the CNTS or in hospitals.

Strategies to combat reluctance

Communication is the key to removing obstacles to blood donation.If blood is life, it is noble to give it to save lives.There is no risk of weakening or falling ill yourself because a medical examination will precede your blood donation, and during this examination your ability to give blood without weakening will be assessed.You will not be tested if a risk to your own health is detected.

If blood is sacred, this is a good reason to give what is sacred (blood) to save what is sacred (life). All religious currents advocate solidarity, mutual aid and empathy, which are equally sacred values. If these beliefs are interpreted correctly, we will realise that they support the idea of donating blood.

Donating blood does not expose you to the risk of contracting a disease because single-use equipment is used.

As for the fear of pain from the needle, the professionalism of the staff will minimise the pain. During the entire blood donation process, it is only when the needle passes through the skin and the vein wall that you will feel a one-second pain. The rest of the process is completely painless. As for the sale of blood, blood cannot be considered as sold because the CNTS does not make a profit on blood, it works rather at a loss. The cost of producing a bag of blood is 10 times the price at which patients receive blood, because the state subsidises transfusion activities.The patients' contribution is intended to support the state subsidy for the continued production of blood.

Blood donation motivational messages

When it comes to blood transfusion, the norm is for each country to be self-sufficient, i.e. to succeed in mobilising a sufficient number of blood donors in the country to produce all the blood products needed for the care of the country's patients expressed in the form of requests for blood products.It is not recommended to import blood products from another country.A country needs to mobilise 1% of its population to donate blood, which means collecting at least 80,000 blood donations a year for Togo. We have 65,000 bags a year, so we still need to mobilise 15,000 blood donors in addition to those who already give.

Blood is a natural, living medicine found only in the human body.It has a short shelf life (less than a month), which is why blood collections need to be regular. Every day, 250 bags need to be collected across the country, including 150 bags in Lomé.

Community involvement

Togolese communities in all localities are invited to get involved in the blood drives organised near their homes and at the fixed blood collection points.The one in Lomé is the Centre National de Transfusion Sanguine (CNTS) in Tokoin Doumasséssé, not far from the Ecole Primaire Publique Doumasséssé 2 and the EAMAU.It is open on working days from 7.30am to 6pm and on Saturdays from 8am to 2pm.

Raymond DZAKPATA

Article validated by Prof. Lochina Feteke, Director of the CNTS