By Stephen Otage
The Uganda Blood Transfusion Services says it will no longer accept blood from drunkards and donors with multiple sexual partners because of the cost incurred by the country in cleaning up their blood.
According to Samuel Davis Wante, the clinical team leader Nakasero Blood Bank, they are finding it too costly to process blood from both male and female prostitutes and drunkards so that it can be transfused for patients because of their level of exposure to transfusable diseases found in blood.
He notes that the blood from these groups of people is usually infected with HIV, Syphilis, Hepatitis B and C because they are sexually reckless.
Asked how they can identify a prostitute and whether people in polygamous marriages are affected, he said their research among polygamous marriages especially Muslims, shows that such people are faithful unlike prostitutes.
He explained that they tightened the criteria for selecting blood donors because it costs $80 to process a unit of blood and if several contaminated units are collected, it means the money to process it has gone to waste.
Yesterday, volunteers from the International We love You Foundation, the South Korean based international NGO affiliated to the United Nations Department for Global Communication, joined an estimated army of 300,000 fellow volunteers in 67 countries around the world, to donate blood in those countries to help patients.
