Geographic distribution of blood collections in Haiti before and after the 2010 earthquake

Abstract

Background The January 2010 Haiti earthquake destroyed the National Blood Transfusion Center and reduced monthly national blood collections by > 46%. Efforts to rapidly scale-up blood collections outside of the earthquake-affected region were investigated. Study Design and Methods Blood collection data for 2004–2014 from Haiti’s 10 administrative departments were grouped into four regions: Northern, Central, Port-au-Prince and Southern. Analyses compared regional collection totals during the study period. Results Collections in Port-au-Prince accounted for 52% of Haiti’s blood supply in 2009, but fell 96% in February 2010. Haiti subsequently increased blood collections in the North, Central and Southern regions to compensate. By May 2010, national blood collections were only 10·9% lower than in May 2009, with 70% of collections coming from outside of Port-au-Prince. By 2013 national collections (27 478 units) had surpassed 2009 levels by 30%, and Port-au-Prince collections had recovered (from 11 074 units in 2009 to 11 670 units in 2013). Conclusion Haiti’s National Blood Safety Program managed a rapid expansion of collections outside of Port-au-Prince following the earthquake. Annual collections exceeded pre-earthquake levels by 2012 and continued rising annually. Increased regional collections provided a greater share of the national blood supply, reducing dependence on Port-au-Prince for collections.

Impact of disasters on blood donation rates and blood safety: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…All the 18 included studies [ 8 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 ] were observational in nature. Seventeen were uncontrolled before–after studies, whereas the 18th adopted a cross‐sectional design [ 33 ].…”

“…Eleven studies were conducted in Asia (Iran [ 19 , 25 , 26 , 31 ], China [ 23 , 27 , 29 ], Iraq/Afghanistan [ 33 ], Turkey [ 32 ], Taiwan [ 28 ] and Sri Lanka [ 8 ]). The remaining seven were conducted in North America (United States [ 21 , 22 , 30 , 34 ], Haiti [ 20 ]), South America (Chile [ 35 ]) or Africa (Egypt [ 24 ]).…”

“…Of the 12 studies providing insight into the impact of natural disasters, the vast majority ( n = 10) reported on earthquakes hitting Iran (2003 Bam earthquake [ 19 , 26 ], the 2017 Kermanshah earthquake [ 25 , 31 ]), China (2008 Sichuan earthquake [ 23 , 29 ]), Haiti [ 20 ], Turkey (1999 Marmara earthquake [ 32 ]), Chile (2010 earthquake [ 35 ]) and the United States (1989 San Francisco Bay earthquake [ 21 ]). The other two studies provided data on the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami [ 8 ] and the 2017 typhoon cyclone number 8 warning in Hong Kong [ 27 ].…”

“…In a second study, the mean number of donation attempts was significantly lower after the Boston Marathon bombing, compared to before, but only in the group of donors who had never received a transfusion themselves [ 30 ]. The other 14 studies with data on blood donation rates after natural [ 8 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 23 , 26 , 27 , 31 , 32 , 35 ] or man‐made disasters [ 22 , 24 , 28 , 34 ] reported only absolute numbers of donations before and after the disaster. As the means and standard deviations were not available and could not be calculated, mean differences could not be estimated and statistical significance could not be judged.…”

“…As the means and standard deviations were not available and could not be calculated, mean differences could not be estimated and statistical significance could not be judged. However, in all but three studies [ 8 , 20 , 27 ], the absolute number of donations after the disaster greatly exceeded the number before the disaster. The same was true for the study that provided data on plasma and platelet donation rates before and after the 2017 Kermanshah earthquake [ 25 ].…”