Recommendations made by organisations in rich Western nations when providing financial aid to many African countries for blood transfusion services are unnecessarily increasing the cost of ‘safe blood’ in sub-Saharan Africa, says a new paper just published.
The publication shows that conditions placed on aid for blood services – driven by concerns around HIV infection – such as centralising blood banks and using only unpaid volunteer donors, create barriers that increase the cost of a unit of blood in Africa and will lead to long-term reliance on external funding.
Well-intentioned international organisations that contribute money could be having a detrimental effect on blood services in sub-Saharan Africa by focusing on HIV security issues and using standard practices from wealthy countries that do not translate to the developing world, says the paper.
Co-signed by 25 individuals from five continents with direct involvement in African blood transfusion issues, the paper is published in PLOS Medicine.
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Image: Blood transfusion
Credit: Lighthouse50 from Flickr
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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