Haemorrhage, Cause Of 44% Of Maternal Deaths

Severe haemorrage has been identified as a major contributor to the death of women during child birth in Africa.

This disclosure was made by the Rivers State Commissioner for Health, Dr Sampson Parker, in a statewide broadcast to mark this year’s World Blood Donor Day.

Dr Parker said “more than half a million women die every year from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth worldwide with haemorrage, accounting for 25 per cent of the complications” and 44 per cent mortality in Africa, adding that it is also a major cause of mortality in Nigeria.

The Health boss lamented that the problem is compounded by inadequate blood supply and non-availability of safe blood for use by accident victims, patients with blood disorders, children and women with complicated pregnancies emphasizing that “the transfusion of unsafe blood has the risk of transmitting blood borne disease such as the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, hepatitis virus and syphilis to the recipient as well as increase the infection in the general population”.

He added that majority of the victims who need blood and could not get are in developing countries, saying that an estimated 80 million units of blood is collected globally every year with developing countries contributing only 38 per cent.

He said voluntary unpaid blood donation is the foundation of a safe blood supply, saying that the World Blood Donor Day celebration was a unanimous declaration of  World Health Assembly every June.

He also said this year’s theme; New Blood For The World, focuses on young donors.

“It is expected that a new generation of idealistic and motivated voluntary unpaid blood donors will form a pool that provides the safest blood possible needed to save lives”, he said.

He charged good spirited individuals to help save a life by going to the Braithwaite Memorial Specialist Hospital  and other government owned hospitals to voluntarily donate blood.

Tonye Nria-Dappa