Janet Ogundepo
Medical experts have strongly kicked against transfusing blood to patients at home, warning that the practice is unsafe and unacceptable.
The physicians cautioned that such a practice could lead to blood transfusion complications besides the transmission of blood-borne infections such as Hepatitis B and C and Human Immunodeficiency Virus.
They condemned the activities of quack and unlicensed medical practitioners who collected blood from donors and transfused them to the recipients without the required screening.
According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, there is an increased chance of being infected with Hepatitis C through transfusion of unscreened blood as well as through tattoos, piercing, sharing injection drug use equipment or engaging in unprotected sexual activity with infected persons.
The World Health Organisation states that the Hepatitis C virus is blood-borne and most infections occur through unsafe injection practices, unscreened blood transfusions, unsafe healthcare and sexual practices that lead to blood exposure.
Speaking with PUNCH Healthwise, a professor of Haematology and Blood Transfusion at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, Akinbami Abduljaleel, said it was unsafe and a criminal offence to transfuse blood outside of a hospital or medical-controlled environment.
He, however, clarified that blood transfusion could be done in an ambulance by trained medical personnel.
The don explained that conducting blood transfusions at home, whether by untrained or trained personnel, was discouraged due to the possible reactions from the recipient that would require some equipment in the hospital.
“Blood transfusion is a criminal offence in Lagos and Nigeria. The reason it is discouraged is the possibility of having a reaction that will require some equipment like oxygen that may not be available at home.
“Blood transfusion is a tissue transplant because you are receiving donated tissue, (blood is a tissue) from a donor so there could be adverse reaction and rejection of the tissue by the recipient. This can be fatal if you don’t have the equipment needed to support the reaction. So whether by trained personnel or not, it’s better done in a hospital setting or ambulance where if there’s a need to suction, if the patient goes into cardiac or respiratory arrest, you have a suctioning machine. Also, if the person needs oxygen you can quickly give oxygen, which may not be available at home,” Abduljaleel said.
The haematologist stated that recipients of blood transfusion at home, especially those who received them at the hands of untrained and unlicensed practitioners were at risk of transfusion transmissible infections and complications.
He added that they were also at risk of blood-borne infections such as HIV, Hepatitis B and C, syphilis and malaria.
“Before blood is certified fit for transfusion we screen them for these infections. We also screen the blood donors for HIV, HBV, HCV and syphilis in Lagos State with a good screening kit called Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) and after the screening we put a logo to certify the pint of blood fit. The Lagos State Blood Transfusion Service is responsible for coordinating donation and collection of blood,” the don said.
The blood transfusion expert further asserted that before blood transfusion can be considered safe, it must be crossmatched and compatible with the recipient’s blood group.
“If you give a group incompatible blood, the body of the recipient will reject it and may even cause immediate death of the recipient. So there are immediate complications of blood transfusion and there are late complications so it is possible to put up the blood and the person develops fever and rigour (severe chills with violent shivering) and dies in the next one or two minutes of receiving the blood. That is why it is not safe to give blood at home,” he said.
The professor of haematology continued, “It’s an act of parliament passed in 2001 by Lagos State House of Assembly that any blood unit that must be used in private or public facilities and hospitals must carry that logo which will be got after the screening in accredited centres. It is a criminal offence to use unscreened blood. It happens, some quacks will just bleed someone without going through screening and then transfuse immediately but if such a person is caught, they will be made to face the law.”
Also, a Consultant Physician and a Gastroenterologist, Dr Abubakar Maiyaki, stated that blood transfusion at home was rampant in the rural areas.
He added that the donors and the blood were not screened or tested for infectious diseases before it was transfused to the recipients.
The Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Internal Medicine at the Usmanu Danfodiyo University and Teaching Hospital Sokoto, Sokoto State, noted that health workers who engaged in such practices also transfused blood indiscriminately at the slightest mention of persistent illness.
Maiyaki said, “In the villages, you still see people transfusing blood without being tested and screened for infections. This is being done seriously in the villages. You see health workers who hear a patient say, ‘Oh, I’m sick, come and transfuse me’ and will do so.”
The General Secretary for the Society for Gastroenterology and Hepatology in Nigeria, also said, “Recently, someone in Sokoto who I admitted was telling me, he had been transfused with blood three times at home, with unscreened blood! This patient eventually died of Hepatocellular Cancer of the liver from Hepatitis B.”
The hepatologist warned against the practice, stating that unscreened blood could carry blood-borne infectious diseases such as hepatitis.
Copyright PUNCH
All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from PUNCH.
Contact: health_wise@punchng.com
The post Why blood shouldn’t be transfused at home – Physicians appeared first on Healthwise.