This archive report was first published on 9 August 2019.
Kenya's blood bank is facing a crisis after the US government announced plans to withdraw Sh2 billion in annual funding, a move that could severely impact the country's blood collection and testing services.
According to reports, the US President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR) will run out of funding in September this year, with the organization having turned down a request by Kenya's Health Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki for a six-month extension.
PEPFAR had been providing $20 million in yearly funding for blood services in Kenya, but the withdrawal of this funding has left the Ministry of Health without a backup plan for blood collection and testing.
As a result, Kenya's blood bank is in limbo, with Bloodlink, a foundation advocating for blood services in Kenya, warning of an impending health crisis in the country.
"The termination of the funding will hurt sites where blood is screened and tested for HIV," said Joseph Wang'endo, executive director of Bloodlink Foundation.
Wang'endo explained that the 18 national testing laboratories in the country have run out of automated screening reagents, forcing them to switch to manual procedures that have slowed down blood screening in hospitals.
Currently, only two of the six national centers - Nairobi and Nakuru - are screening blood, with manual procedures able to process only 270 pints daily compared to the 800 pints that could be processed on automation.
Kenya is already experiencing a shortage of blood, with the collection process affected by a lack of funds for screening tools and human resources to collect and store blood.
Accident victims, anemic patients, patients undergoing surgery, sickle cell patients, cancer, and leukemia patients rely on the blood bank for their lives.
