MNH improving with equipment for blood related complications

The pivotal public facility will now start providing high level services related to blood complications, following installation of two state-of-the-art equipment vital in bone marrow transplants. This was the big news, while a range of medical professionals would start chewing what that implies as the new equipment machines include a ‘spectra optia’ to be used in harvesting hematopoietic stem cells, platelets, granucytes and plasma, according to its senior officials..

Dr Stella Rwezaura, head of the Haematology Department at the hospital told a press conference to unveil the equipment towards the end of last week that the equipment makes possible new services hitherto not available at the hospital. Evidently, thousands of patients seeking high level blood diagnostic and transplant services will now be assisted, with blood related diseases posing a major threat to lives of many Tanzanians, the senior medic pointed out. Similarly, she took the opportunity offered by the briefing to underline tht the lack of general knowledge on blood complications compels many to turn to traditional medication. Such efforts are tied to fears of witchcraft but often end up losing their lives by over bleeding.

One such disease is haemophilia, described as a mostly inherited genetic disorder that impairs the body's ability to make blood clots, a process needed to stop bleeding..Again, there is a wide variety of blood disorders – including inherited blood diseases such as sickle cell disease, hemophilia, leukemia and thalassemia, which obviously aren’t technically understood by members of the public, and treatment is difficult. Alternative medicine for instance oil seeds helping to stabilise hormonal flows in the body and partially mitigate inherited defects are offered but again such remedies aren’t sufficiently known or popular. In that case hospitals remain the principal sphere of medication hope, all else notwithstanding.

In that case even more credit must go to the public authorities for the intensity of investment being directed to public health needs, as the range of diseases, medical diagnosis and interventions that are now available at Muhimbili and its autonomous establishments are refreshing. All this was a day dream in the not so distant past where philanthropists were doing all they could to get people to India in particular for heart surgery in particular. Now the public expects the more complicated diagnoses and interventions on vital body organs right here. We haven’t climbed the whole ladder yet and thus there is still a plausible case for seeking treatment outside, but it is more optional than it was in the past or perhaps just cosmetic.

Dr Rwezaura notably asserted that there is a heightened need for experts who can effectively tackle the whole range of blood complications in hospital diagnosis and treatment right from district and regional hospitals to referral and national hospitals. It is clear that there is a lot of climbing needed here, both for the range of equipment needed and their distributed in those areas, apart from conducting specialised training to have sufficiently well scattered specialists. Neither MNH nor the ministry can credibly say what we can achieve up to 2025 when a sort of evaluation will be made, but we are doing well. Bravo!