What's next for Lebanon's blood shortage?
Donner Sang Compter, a Lebanese nongovernmental group, has staged hundreds of blood donation events to take some of the pressure off patients who need blood.
BEIRUT — In an upscale area of downtown Beirut at the luxury Le Gray Hotel, staff and members of the public lay on folding beds in a conference room, giving blood at a drive organized by Donner Sang Compter (DSC), a Lebanese nongovernmental organization (NGO).
The organization, founded in 2006, plays a unique role in Lebanon’s blood donation system organizing blood drives, creating a database of donors and engaging with the many actors in the country’s health-care system.
The April 2 blood drive in Beirut is only one of the 200 events DSC holds each year, filling an important gap in the decentralized blood donation system.
Lebanon primarily uses replacement donations, where patients who need blood have to find it themselves, putting pressure on families already dealing with a medical emergency. To complicate matters further, Lebanon’s health-care sector is made of public and private hospitals often acting independently.
