Crackdown on dodgy blood banks

HIV/AIDS has led to a far greater focus on safe donor blood than ever before but operating a blood bank or laboratory in Lagos, Nigeria's largest city, has not been strictly regulated until recently. Despite documented guidelines for ensuring the safety of donated blood, many facilities, including government medical centres, have been operating below the minimum standards, causing concern about the transfusion of unsterilised blood. A recent incident at Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), in which an infant was diagnosed with HIV after receiving a blood transfusion, has increased these fears and forced the Lagos state government to crack down on people operating blood laboratories and banks. A Blood Transfusion committee has been set up as a watchdog, and one laboratory in the city has already been closed down. Other facilities have been ordered to comply with the guidelines or be shut down. No blood laboratory in the state can now operate without the committee's approval. "We have gone to 12 laboratories and some of them don't want to practice blood banking again because we gave them strict guidelines to comply with," executive secretary of the committee Dr Modupe Olaiya, told PlusNews. Olaiya said most laboratories visited by the committee were in poor condition. "We found a blood bank [so] small that you can hardly accommodate two people inside ... a lot of them are using ordinary domestic refrigerators to store blood." Domestic refrigerators are not suitable for blood storage, as they are usually poorly insulated and not designed to maintain the recommended temperatures. Blood must be kept cold to reduce bacterial contamination and prolong its usability. The condition of some blood banks and laboratories the committee visited were also unhygienic, with no space for the staff to wash after drawing blood. Contrary to the regulation that all blood donated must be screened in government-approved centres, Olaiya said some of the facilities "just screen on their own, using unacceptable screening kits", and warned that "there are lots of laboratories doing what could endanger lives". An estimated 5 percent to 10 percent of HIV infections worldwide are transmitted by transfusion of contaminated blood and blood products.