Blood supply safe, more donors needed
Friday is World Health Day, another one of those dates crowded onto a United Nations calendar in which virtually every day of the year is earmarked for some often arcane observance or another. But for Belize in the year two thousand, World Health Day holds some particular importance. Its theme is “Safe Blood Saves Lives”, and for a nation with a near epidemic of AIDS, gunshot wounds and traffic accidents an adequate supply of high quality blood is almost as important as air, food and water.
Blood is one of these things we don’t think about until we need it. But when it is needed it would be good to know that there is an adequate and safe supply in the bank.
Jacqueline Woods
This is the blood bank headquarters in Belize City. It is here that blood supplies collected from across the country are sent and screened before the blood can be donated.
Presently there is a healthy supply of blood in the bank. However there is always an ongoing campaign to secure more donors. There are two types of donors. The volunteers who come in willingly to donate and the replacement donors who give when they are scheduled for elective surgery or when a relative is in need of blood.
Joy Charlie, Supervisor, Belize Blood Bank
“Well we haven’t been in a position where we do not have blood at anytime. We would like to see more volunteer donors because those donors would be more honest and they won’t be pressed for giving blood, they will be coming in willingly and giving the blood, so if we get more volunteer donors, the chances of getting safer blood will be greater.”
However finding donors is easier said than done. Most of us are
scared of needles and contracting diseases like HIV or Hepatitis B is also a concern at the Blood Bank. That’s why donors are thoroughly interviewed and the procedure is completely sterile.
Joy Charlie
“We start with the donors when the donors come in we ask them health questions and if they pass the health question test, we check them to see that they have enough to give then we collect their blood.”
Jacqueline Woods
This is the sterile bag that is used to collect the blood. Attached to each bag is a tube. As you can see the needle comes with the unit and it is sealed. The seal is only broken in front of the donor.
Once the needle has been used, it is cut off and then thrown away.
Joy Charlie
“So for the donor to be getting anything from giving blood, no. It is the phlebotomist, collecting the blood is the one who would be the one to get stuck with the donor’s needle.”
Marjorie Mariano, Phlebotomist, Belize Blood Bank
“For the blood bank to be a better bank, each person has to make a difference. It has to start with each person, healthy lifestyle, maintaining good health, nutrition and make sure you come and deposit your blood.”
Jacqueline Woods
Once the blood is collected it goes through a battery of tests.
Marie Gomez, Supervisor, Serology Unit
“We have the samples and we have to wait till the clot is spinning off and you see the serum there, that’s what we take off from the clot and what we use is an analyzer procedure that test for the antibodies for HIV, Hepatitis and these different diseases.”
Jackie Woods
“Are you comfortable when you are in that chair?”
Donaldo Yah, Volunteer Blood Donor
“well yes.”
In 1997, Donaldo Yah became a volunteer blood donor.
Donaldo Yah, Volunteer Blood Donor
“The fact that it might be one day that my relative might need blood and since I have donated the blood, I can come here and request a unit of blood right, so that drives me to give the blood.”
Yah not only became a donor but he is also a medical lab technician at the blood bank. However he understands that people can sometime feel squeamish.
Donaldo Yah
“I am comfortable but only a bit nervous but I think that will go away when they draw the blood. And why are you feeling nervous because of the needle.”
Jacqueline Woods
“This is the second time you are giving blood is this something you think you will keep up?”
Donaldo Yah
“Maybe yes, probably yes, 90% yes.”
The procedure only last for three to five minutes and most agree all you feel is a little pinch. Once the blood has been collected,
the donor replenishes the fluid that has been lost with a refreshing cup of juice or water.
Joy Charlie
“Each person have between ten to fourteen pints of blood and to keep the body going they need about ten pints, so we would take out about only one every three months. Every three months they can come and give blood.”
The names of all blood donors are kept confidential. Each person and sample are assigned a code and it is only that number the lab technicians see. To become a donor please call the Belize Blood Bank at 45010. To learn more about blood in Belize, tune in at eight to One on One with Dickie Bradley. Dickie’s guest will be Hubert Johnson and Joy Charlie of the Blood Donor Service.
