June 14, 2007
WHO Initiative on Safe Blood
for Safe Motherhood
Geneva
The World Health Organization (WHO) Thursday launched a new
initiative to improve the availability and use of safe blood to save
the lives of women during and after childbirth.
The global initiative on "Safe Blood for Safe Motherhood" was
launched on the occasion of World Blood Donor Day.
The initiative "aims to improve access to safe blood to manage
pregnancy-related complications as part of a comprehensive approach
to maternal care," the UN agency said in a statement.
"This includes good antenatal care, prevention and timely treatment
of anaemia, assessment of the need for transfusion and safe blood
transfusion given only when really required," the statement said.
WHO will strengthen the capacity of blood banks and district
hospitals for improving maternal health through the provision of
technical support in the areas of voluntary blood donation, safe
blood collection, quality assured testing and best clinical
practices.
It will also train clinicians, nurses, technicians and other key
health personnel at district level facilities through its regional
networks across the world.
According to WHO data, the lack of access to safe blood for women
reflects the general situation in developing countries. Developing
countries are home to more than 80 percent of the world' s
population, yet they currently represent only 45 percent of the
global blood supply.
"Globally, more than 500,000 women die each year during pregnancy,
childbirth or in the postpartum period (time following childbirth)
-- 99 percent of them in the developing world," WHO said in the
statement.
Severe bleeding during childbirth causes 25 percent of those deaths
making it the most common cause of maternal mortality, it added.
As pregnant women are one of the main groups of patients requiring
blood transfusion in developing countries, together with children
they are particularly vulnerable to blood shortages and to HIV,
hepatitis B and hepatitis C infections through unsafe blood.
"If current trends continue, the world will fail to meet target five
of the Millennium Development Goals to reduce maternal mortality,"
said WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan.
"We must do everything we can to improve the chances of women during
and after childbirth," she said.
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