Maternal health: the tech saving mothers in sub-Saharan Africa

Hundreds of moms die in sub-Saharan Africa yearly with demand for blood outstripping provide. World Japan seems at how a Japanese medical tech firm is working to vary that.

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If that blood hadn't been obtainable on the hospital, my new child daughter would have grown (up) with out a mom.

Giving delivery to a 3rd little one final yr virtually price Lilian her life. After present process a caesarian part in Nandi County in Kenya, the place she lives, she suffered a postpartum haemorrhage and wanted a life-saving transfusion.

“When the physician arrived and began attending to me, my complete physique felt a sudden chill. My entire physique went chilly. After about half-hour, I began regaining my power. If that blood (from donors) hadn’t been obtainable on the hospital, my new child daughter would have grown (up) with out a mom,” Lilian advised Euronews.

After present process a caesarian part Lilian suffered a postpartum haemorrhage and wanted a life-saving transfusion.© Euronews

Maternal mortality

Whereas Lilian survived, day-after-day greater than 800 girls die throughout being pregnant and childbirth around the globe. Most of the causes are preventable. Two-thirds of these maternal deaths occur in Sub-Saharan Africa and as much as almost half of them are right down to extreme bleeding with demand for blood outstripping provide.

Philana Mugyenyi is from Terumo Blood and Cell Applied sciences, a part of Japan’s Terumo Group. It gives know-how and software program in Africa for gathering and getting ready blood and cells for remedies.

After we meet her, Philana is donating blood platelets through automated Terumo BCT know-how. Earlier than it arrived, as much as six donors have been wanted to generate one unit for a affected person. Now a single donor is sufficient.

“In Africa, we don’t but have a tradition of donating blood, and that is for a lot of causes. A few of them are cultural, some are lack of understanding,” Philana explains.

In line with Terumo BCT analysis, greater than 16,000 moms' lives could possibly be saved every year in Kenya, Ghana and Ivory Coast. That’s if sufficient blood was obtainable to deal with postpartum haemorrhage, like that suffered by Lillian in Nandi.

“What it discovered is over and above the funding required, and past the 16,000 lives saved, price financial savings of over 20 million euros could possibly be made yearly by making certain moms have entry to blood,” says Philana.

Along with supporting blood donor occasions on Worldwide Ladies’s Day in Kenya, Terumo BCT is educating and coaching medical professionals in transfusion. It has additionally arrange a pan-African coalition which is working to spice up blood provides.

“The supply of protected, sufficient blood is a chance on this nation," says Physician Nancy Okinda, a Haematologist at Aga Khan College Hospital Nairobi.

"The federal government has to work with the hospitals and all of the non-public establishments to make sure that we now have a strong donor registry, and in addition to amass applied sciences that can assist them maximise the variety of donors they've,” she provides.

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We've options to really maximise the potential of each unit of blood donated.

Philana Mugyenyi from Terumo Blood and Cell Applied sciences donating blood platelets through the agency’s automated know-how.Euronews

Philana explains the state of affairs, telling Euronews: “We've options to really maximise the potential of each unit of blood donated. Automating processes, eliminating wastage and ensuring that extra sufferers can really be served by blood that’s donated. These affected person teams embody moms, but additionally most cancers sufferers, trauma sufferers. Past that, we now have different applied sciences that do issues like cut back the transmission of malaria by blood transfusions.”

Again in Nandi, Lilian and her child are doing effectively.

“Pleasure is playful and is suckling simply nice. She is aware of me. She is completely happy each time she sees me," Lilian says.

"I’m grateful. The expertise I've gone by has helped me perceive that after I regain my energy, and my blood rely is again to regular, I can donate to assist others.”