Here are 3 solutions to get blood to folks in 'blood deserts.' One is often illegal
When Caroline Wangamati was touring a rural Kenyan hospital in 2018, the doctors shared that two young mothers would likely be dead within hours.
Their hemoglobin levels were catastrophically low — a sign of life-threatening anemia. The typical response would be a blood transfusion, but the local blood bank was empty.
So Wangamati, the first lady of Bungoma County at the time, frantically called the regional blood center — 85 miles away — to have them send some units.
The delivery arrived a few hours later. "I was very proud of myself," Wangamati tells NPR. "After the blood came in and we transfused the women, I went to see the medical superintendent and was saying, 'I'm so glad we got them this blood because these two women would have died.'"
"He told me, 'But Ma'am, you didn't go to the pediatric ward. We had more than nine patients that needed blood.'"
Across the world, hundreds of millions, if not billions, of people live in areas where there's not enough blood in at least 75% of medical cases. Last month, a coalition of 27 doctors, researchers, and patient advocates coined the term "blood desert" in a Lancet Global Health paper last month, hoping to build awareness and share solutions.
In a blood desert, what are normally — trauma, sickle cell anemia or postpartum bleeding — often become deadly. "Blood is a life-saving drug; it's considered essential medicine," says , a retired rural surgeon from India. But nearly every country in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia is , according to a 2019 study.
