President Museveni greets President Kagame at Entebbe State House yesterday. PHOTO BY PPU 
Despite frequent reports from hospital managers about lack of enough blood across the country, Uganda has been declared top of the World Health Organisation list of African countries with the safest and highest blood donation.
The country director for Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr Tadesse Wuhib, said Uganda collects safe blood from voluntary low risk no-remunerated repeating blood donors (VNRBDs). “The blood safety standards recommended by the WHO require that more than 50 per cent of collected blood -a standard few countries are able to attain. But the Uganda Blood Transfusion Services has achieved 100 per cent blood collection from VNRBDs,” Dr Tadesse said. He made the remarks while marking the World blood donor Day in Entebbe yesterday.

To commemorate the day, UBTS aims at raising awareness about the importance of having adequate supplies of safe blood and encourage more volunteers to donate blood and save lives.
Dr Tadesse also said HIV sero-prevalence among VNRBD donors decreased significantly from 2.55 per cent in 2002 to 0.79 per cent in 2009 as a result of vigorous programmes of blood donor education, selection, counseling, care, and retention of safe donors by the Uganda Blood Transfusion Services.
In a separate interview with the Daily Monitor the principal laboratory superintendent of Mulago Hospital, Mr Ayika Ponsiano, said there is no blood, especially during school holidays. He said there are seven blood banks and six collection centres majority in poor facilities.bssenoga@ug.nationmedia.com