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Rabat – Morocco’s current blood reserves are sufficient for three to four days of consumption, while in Casablanca, the situation remains critical as blood reserves are barely sufficient to last a 24-hour period.
Dr. Khadija Lahjouji, director of the National Blood Transfusion Center (CNTS) in Rabat, revealed toMoroccan news outlets that the center currently only has 3,000 blood bags at its disposal.
Despite this stock being enough to provide three to four days of consumption, it is far from the seven-day safety stock recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Regional reserves depend not only on the frequency of donations, but also on the size of the region. Larger cities are often the most affected by shortages, unlike small towns that are able to manage with smaller reserves.
“For example, in the case of the city of Ouarzazate, 3 collections per week are sufficient while at the level of Casablanca and Rabat, at least 4 collections per day are needed,” Dr Lahjouji explains.
In Casablanca, the average requirement is 400 blood bags per day, which makes the number of blood bags that are currently available barely sufficient to cover the daily requirement.
Many observers attribute the decrease in blood donations to citizens’ misinformation about blood donation with COVID-19, and the vaccination against the virus.
“People think that once they are vaccinated they cannot donate blood. Which is entirely wrong. We develop and update information notes that we send to the regional blood transfusion centers,” Dr. Lahjouji said.
In order to ensure that donors are eligible to donate blood after vaccination, the CNTS regularly benchmarks recommendations from high-level international institutions to guide its regional centers.
In a communication note recently distributed to all regional blood donation and transfusion centers, the CNTS indicates that blood donations are permitted 7 days following the administrations of a COVID-19 vaccine in Morocco.
The national center specifies that AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Janssen, and Sinopharm are all involved, and that all Moroccans who have received vaccinations are safe to donate blood.
If a donor has been infected with COVID-19, a 28-day wait is necessary after the recovery to ensure safe donation, the doctor further explained.
In order to reassure donors, every person is medically examined during the donation process, in which a doctor determines if an eligible donor can donate blood safely.
The donation is immediately postponed if the donor demonstrates abnormal symptoms such as fever, or is on certain medication that may render the donation impossible.
In Morocco, regular donors make up 25% of the country’s population.
All Moroccan citizens and residents aged 18 to 65, specifically those residing in Casablanca, are encouraged to donate blood to help the city overcome this period of blood scarcity.
