In an interview published this Monday, February 19 in Le Soleil, the director of the National Blood Transfusion Center (CNTS), Professor Saliou Diop, is categorical. At the question “Does the closure of UCAD have an impact on the shortage of (blood) donors?”, he answers directly: “Yes!” And explains: “Because students are our main source of blood donations. The system is very fragile. There just needs to be a jolt for this deficit and this rupture to be seen.»
Professor Diop must therefore welcome with a smile the announcement of the upcoming resumption of the Chemin des Amphis by students from the Dakar University. “The social campus is not yet open, but everything suggests that classes will restart at UCAD, announces Seneweb. The first to be summoned are the students and professors of the Faculty of Medicine, Pharmacy and Ondoto-Stomatology. They will resume teaching for the first semester of the 2023-2024 academic year on Thursday February 22.»
“For maintenance needs estimated at 180,000 blood bags per year, Senegal has only made 117,000 donations in 2023 and this represents a gap that has persisted for around ten years” points out Professor Saliou Diop in his with The sun . This last signal that the gap is increasing with the rise of the medical level marked by, in particular, the advent of “types of treatment which did not exist before” the multiplication of hemodialysis centers and the development of specialized surgery . “The more the country develops in terms of medical infrastructure – we are moving towards kidney transplants – the greater the need for blood will be”indicates the director of the CNTS.
Professor Saliou Diop emphasizes that the situation worsens during Lent and Ramadan. “Fasting periods are times when a reduction in the number of donors is expected, he warns. For example, we know that during the month of Ramadan, about 25% fewer blood donors. (…) If we have two communities that do not fast at the same time, we rely on one of them. This was not the case last year with the two communities fasting almost at the same time. For this year, it will be a little delayed. In any case, we expect that there will be fewer donations and sufficient stock will need to be made to make up for the deficit.
