Burkina: Dr Fatogoma Konaté invites young people aged 18 and over to make 25 blood donations before they turn 25

The new doctor Fatogoma Konaté on Friday invited young people aged 18 and over to make 25 blood donations before their 25th birthday in order to meet the need for blood. It was during his thesis defense in pharmacy at Joseph Ki-Zerbo University in Ouagadougou.

Fotogoma Konaté defended his thesis on Friday July 7, 2023 before a jury which made him Dr in pharmacy with very honorable mention at Joseph Ki-Zerbo University.

The new Dr. Fatogoma Konaté invited young people aged 18 and over to “overcome their fear and become more interested in donating blood by joining the ”Club 25”, that is to say make 25 donations of blood before their 25th birthday.

He explained that this is possible because a boy can donate blood every three months and a girl can donate every four months. The objective is to meet the need for blood in Burkina Faso, which is estimated at 250,000 bags.

Mr. Konaté defended his thesis on the theme: “Knowledge, attitudes and practices of blood donation among students of the Training and Research Unit in Letters Arts and Communications of Joseph Ki-Zerbo University in 2023 (Ouagadougou , Burkina Faso)”.

By the way, he says he questioned 412 students in the five courses of the said UFR: “Modern Letters, English, Germanic Studies, Arabic Studies and Linguistics”.

The new doctor has shown that two out of five students donate blood in order to know their serological status.

“Indeed, after the donation, within the framework of haemovigilance, the bags are systematically subjected to numerous biological examinations, and the results are given free of charge to the donors. As a result, many students, unable to afford their HIV test financially, are turning to blood donation as an alternative,” he said.

The pharmacist noted that the risk of infection, fear of needles, physical weakness, gender, age limits and the sale of blood are all obstacles to achieving self-sufficiency in the product. blood. Among these obstacles, he noted that fear is the most mentioned in his study.

“This fear is of various origins, in particular the phobia of the needle in 22.33% of the students, that of discovering a disease in 21.36%, and that of contracting a serious disease such as infection by the Virus of Human Immunodeficiency and Hepatitis B and C Viruses in 13.83%”, he maintains.

In his opinion, these fears still hold back many potential donors from taking action, which leads to a reduction in the number of donors and further complicates the possibility of achieving self-sufficiency in labile blood products in Burkina Faso.

According to him, the study reveals that only 38.69% of students have already made at least one blood donation. This low participation could be explained by fear, low level of knowledge and ignorance of the impact of blood donation in the health system.

“This result implies that the students are not sufficiently affected by reliable information and lack elements leading them to donate blood regularly,” he said.

“It is therefore more than imperative that the National Center for Blood Transfusion (CNTS) and its partners look into other communication strategies aimed at emphasizing the advantages as well as the impact that the donation of blood for the health of the population”, he concluded.

Dr. Konaté called on the authorities of the ministry in charge of health to increase and sustain funding for blood transfusion, to cover the entire territory of blood transfusion structures.

He also urged the educational authorities to “introduce through school curricula, the concept of blood donation and its culture from an early age and throughout the educational curriculum”.

He noted that in developing countries like Burkina Faso, timely access to quality blood and blood products remains a real challenge.

As proof, the National Center for Blood Transfusion (CNTS) only collected 107,111 blood bags in 2020 compared to 111,904 blood bags in 2021.

Source: Burkina Information Agency