FDA donates blood bank to Bolgatanga

General News of Sunday, June 9, 2019

Source: ghananewsagency.org

2019-06-09

The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) of Bolgatanga, capital of the Upper East East region, has organized a blood drive as part of its mandate to ensure the well-being of the country's citizens.

The exercise allowed members of the public and about 23 stakeholder organizations in the municipality and students of Bolgatanga High School, Zamse Technical High School, to donate blood to equip the blood bank of the city. 39, regional hospital.

Mr. Sabastian Mawuli Hotor, FDA chief for the Upper East region, said in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that this exercise was a major collaboration between the FDA and the Ghana Health Service.

In addition to the basic mandate of the FDA to ensure that healthy foods and healthy medicines are consumed in the country, "we also believe that as an organization, we should be able to give back to the country in a very relevant. and useful. "

He clarified that blood donation was one of the initiatives that the FDA had decided to adopt as a legal mandate. He pointed out that the initiative, launched three years ago at the FDA headquarters in Accra, was the vision of the director general of the Authority. Ms. Delese Mimi Darko and her management team.

Mr. Hotor revealed that it was management's decision to extend the blood drive exercise to different regions this year. He said: "In the Upper East region, this is a first of its kind and we have raised awareness in the media."

"This is an opportunity for us to give back to the blood bank. The blood bank has always asked for blood because it lacks blood. So that's the little we can do as an organization. "

Ms. Ajaratu Issah, head of blood mobilization at Upper East Regional Hospital in Bolgatanga, who led a team of laboratory professionals to conduct the exercise, explained that donors had been subjected to a review. to exclude people with infected wounds on their bodies and to make sure they were not sick.

She added that people taking no medicine could not give, and insisted, "Once blood is injected into a person, you need to make sure that it is safe and that it comes from of a healthy donor who will not pose any danger to the client. "

Ms. Issah stated that blood samples from qualified people had been taken to check their blood levels to make sure they had enough blood to give, and that women could donate blood if they had 12 to 18 grams per deciliter of blood, while men could donate if their blood levels ranged from 13 to 18 grams per deciliter.

She added that the blood bank should be equipped at all times to safeguard emergency situations such as planned and unplanned surgeries, cases of anemia in children and pregnant women, among others. "As for the blood bank, we still need blood. This is never enough for us because there is no artificial substitute for blood. "

She urged members of the public, especially those between the ages of 17 and 60, to make an effort to participate in blood donation exercises, because in addition to helping a person who needed blood, new cells were needed. are produced in the body of donors, which has put them in good health.