Blood Donor Management

Vision

Encouraging and spreading education about blood donation among Egyptians of all ages and sectors.

Goals:

  1. Organizing blood donation campaigns and improving blood transfusion Services in national hospitals and medical institutions working in the fields of cancer, general health ! And pediatrics
  2. Developing an extensive solid reliable data base of donors for different blood types, aiming to offer patients appropriate donors, free of charge.

Currently, the blood donors’ management department organizes campaigns for blood donation and improving transfusion services in national hospitals and medical institutions working in the fields of cancer, general health! and pediatrics such as:

  1. The National Cancer Institute
  2. The Children’s Cancer Hospital 57357 (Cairo and Tanta)
  3. Ain Shams University hospitals
  4. Cairo University hospitals
  5. The Egyptian Red Crescent

Procedures that should be followed during blood donation

Blood donation should be implemented in phases, to select appropriate donors according to the following criteria:

  1. The potential donor fills a donation form that includes:
    • Personal and contact information, to enable contacting him as regular blood donor
    • The medical history and factors that may affect or prevent blood donation

  2. Medical examination and history review phase: done by one of the campaign’s trained physicians. This is the last phase to select appropriate donor:
    • The medical history should be free of any blood donation hinders
    • The age should be between 18 and 60
    • Blood pressure must be 120/80
    • Hemoglobin ratio must be more than 12gm, for the benefit of the donor and the quality of the blood

  3. The blood donation phase: to be done under the supervision of specialized trained medical team, while the donor is resting on a specially equipped chair for his safety and comfort, medical supplies used has to be sterilized, disposable and compliant to quality standards

  4. Preparing the donor to leave and giving him juices and drinks to guaranty his safety

  5. Examining the donors’ samples phase: the samples are examined in special laboratories, the donors are contacted to be informed about the examination outcome, their blood type, and the appropriate time for the next donation.
The blood donors’ management department statistics from 1999 to 2016
The Association of Friends of the National Cancer-free Initiative
The blood donors’ management department
Statistics for the number of campaigns and blood bags collected from 1999 to the end of 2016
Serial No Year Number of blood bags Number of campaigns along the year
1  1999 12847 216
2  2000 15016 277
3 2001 13734 235
4  2002 19752 239
5  2003 18530 257
6  2004 19465 307
7  2005 19356 277
8  2006 18776 265
9  2007 16188 304
10 2008 21874 431
11 2009 32148 566
12 2010 22961 511
13 2011 17027 350
14 2012 17158 398
15 2013 15987 342
16 2014 17192 419
17 2015 17542 456
18 2016 15229 464
19 2017 12724 409
20 2018 9919 338
21 2019 7838 288
22 2020 3764 150
23 2021 2480 94
Total 367507 7593
   

The history of the blood donors’ management department

The beginning:

It all started at the end of the nineties, when we had to deal with serious shortages in the supply of safe blood for cancer patients at the National Cancer Institute, which relied on donors who sell their blood for money. For instance, in 1998, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) spent the amount of L.E.3 millions to ensure its needs of safe blood.

Back then, the AFNCI was prompt to extend support relying itself on best practices and expertise in this field. It resorted to Dr. Adel Ragab, Blood Bank consultant and Dr.Mahmoud Abou El Fettouh, an Egyptian American Expert in collaboration with the American Association of Blood Banks (aabb) to structure a comprehensive program which aimed at organizing and coordinating different blood drives for the provision of the required quantity of free safe blood for the NCI

For the implementation of this program, AFNCI recruited and trained a team of professionals capable of spreading awareness and changing perceptions with respect to blood donation within the community. No campaigns were to take place in streets or public squares; instead safe destinations such as churches, mosques, firms, factories were selected.

Thanks to the generosity and response of blood donors and program sponsors such as Dr Mr. Mohamed Abouel Einein, Chairman of the board of directors of Ceramica Cleopatra Co. who supported the program for 10 consecutive years, the AFNCI was able to meet the needs of the NCI with the provision of a yearly average of 19000 blood sacks.

The blood donors’ management department’s Vision:

Encouraging donors and educating them about the rules of regular donation and spreading the idea among Egyptians of all ages and sectors

The association’s role to achieve this vision

In 1999 the association took over forming a team whose mission is to organize regular blood donation campaigns throughout the year, through a comprehensive training program to encourage donors to donate.

The blood donors’ management department’s goals:

Establishing regular donors database through a program that was applied for the first time in the Middle East, aiming to organize campaigns to offer safe, free of charge, blood to meet the institute’s needs of blood and its components.

Regarding AFNCI’s development of blood transfusion service in the NCI

Since AFNCI took over the responsibility of affording safe, free, blood for cancer patients, it could meet all the institute’s needs of blood, and 50% of its needs of platelets. AFNCI could guaranty high quality safe blood, and eliminate the professional blood sellers’ phenomenon.

The chemotherapy is an essential part in fighting cancer. To boost the results of treatment, the need for blood transfusion increases, this emphasize the importance of the association’s role to offer the institute’s need of blood in order to cover the following needs:

  • Treating anemia resulted from chemotherapy
    • Surgeries
    • The “treatment with blood” clinic (blood is used as treatment for some diseases)
    • Compensating the lack of hemoglobin and other blood components

The cooperation between the institute and AFNCI was extended to cover other areas, such as:

  • Renewing equipment (refrigerators, blood donation chairs ..etc.)
    • Training the institute’s physicians, technicians and secretaries on the latest techniques of implementing external campaigns according to the American Association of Blood Banks standard
    • Implementing blood donation campaigns in coordination with the blood donors’ management department
    • Guarantying blood quality i.e. being free of blood transmitted diseases  
    • Saving millions of pounds the institute used to spend to buy blood from other blood banks, and use the money to cover other expenses

Renovating the institute’s blood bank

AFNCI took over renovating the institute’s blood bank through offering:

  • 4 refrigerators for conserving blood
  • A centrifuge
  • 2 screening equipment
  • A deep freezer to conserve plasma
  • Automated Eliza equipment
  • A device to test blood type conformity
  • 12 mobile chairs for blood donation
  • Welding device for blood bags
  • Hemoglobin measuring device, for donors before donation