Blood is the main engine that keeps the human body up and running. It performs many functions from the provision of oxygen to fight off infections to the removal of waste. Statistics have proven that in the world, someone needs blood every 2 seconds, every day.
According to the health ministry, with a population of over 180 million people, Nigeria requires up to 1.8million units of blood every day to meet various clinical needs. A lot of people die due to the lack of access to blood from various life-threatening problems including maternal mortality to deaths from accidents, child mortality and sickle cell.
Blood donations have become a very widespread practice that saves a lot of lives. With the involvement of digital technologies in our world today, a lot of ways could be optimized in the process of blood donation; from the recruitment of new blood donors to sustaining the commitment of old donors as well as shortening the process of blood donations through the internet.
Various strategies could be considered in using information and communications technologies in general, from the involvements of Smartphones to simple text messages to WhatsApp chats and mobile applications for effective promotion of blood donations.
In the hospital in most cases, when blood is a requirement for patients, most times it’s not provided due to a number of uneven reasons. A donor might also just be around the corner but due to lack of information, the patients and doctors become unaware and lose the chance of saving a life.
One of the world’s most used IT tools is social media and people have used it to seek information for blood donations as well as for donors matching blood for sick patients. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as well could help connect patients with effective organizations that will be willing to provide the resources for donors.
WhatsApp for example has a massive market and distinct features including free downloading, free instant message service and, video, voice and group calls. This medium can be used to reach a wide number of people by sending messages or even using status posts to create public awareness to recruit a younger donor population to as many that are interested.
If this process goes on for a long time, I’m positive there would be huge feedback from the masses. There would provision of blood for the sick, which will get screened and separated in types and then made available to patients in need.
