Africa-Press – Angola. The country’s blood banks, through the National Institute (INS), benefited from an investment by the Executive, in the amount of US$19 million, to purchase equipment and improve service provision.
The director-general of the National Blood Institute, Deodeth Machado, who was speaking in Benguela, during the celebration of the Blood Donor Day, said that 19 million dollars are being invested, in the last five years, in the acquisition of refrigerators, centrifuges and component reaction to confirm blood.
In addition, money is being invested in blood centers in the acquisition of scientific tubes for laboratories, devices for screening for communicable diseases, reagents and other devices that have been allowing the institutions to work better.
“Today, all hospital units and provincial centers provide work in better conditions”, assured Deodeth Machado.
The aforementioned INS controls a total of 156,000 donors, of which only 17,000 are volunteers, a number lower than that recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), which recommends that one to three percent of a country’s population should become donor.
“In Angola and other developing countries, the numbers are not pleasant, considering that less than one percent of the population makes blood donations”, he told the press.
At the ceremony, the INS handed out medals to some regular voluntary donors. “The idea is to encourage more donors, and hope that they persist with the act of donating blood to those who need it”, he concluded.
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