A Cross-sectional Survey of the Willingness of Tertiary Hospital Staff to Donate Blood in Sagamu, Nigeria

Background: Available donor blood rarely meets the demand in sub-Saharan Africa due to obstacles to blood donation. Willingness to donate blood is adjudged an important step to the actual practice of donating blood.Objective: To assess the willingness of the members of staff of the hospital to donate blood and determine factors affecting their willingness or otherwise.Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study. A proportional allocation of participants was carried out at the various departments in the hospital using self-administered questionnaire. Results: Overall, 183 (73%) of the 246 respondents expressed willingness to donate blood, 111(45%) of whom have been asked to donate blood in the past. Only 91(37%) had donated blood in the past. Significantly higher proportion of health staff showed the willingness to donate blood generally and voluntarily compared to non-health staff. Significantly higher proportion of respondents with tertiary education showed the willingness to donate blood. Two hundred and eighteen (88.8%) were willing to donate blood to help the patient in need while fear of exposure to HIV infection, needle prick and dizziness constituted the major factors discouraging blood donation (19.9%, 18.7% and 18.3% respectively.Conclusion: Willingness to donate blood was mostly based on the primordial motivation of helping the patient in need which does not translate to blood donation. There is a need to improve awareness and advocacy on blood donation among hospital staff and the general population

Challenges of pancreatic cancer management in a resource scarce setting

Backgrounds: Of all forms of gastrointestinal malignancy; adenocarcinoma of the pancreas is associated with the worst survival. Management of pancreatic cancer is associated with some challenges. This study is aimed at determining the hospital incidence; sociodemographic characteristics; managements and management's outcome of carcinoma of pancreas at our hospital. We also discuss the management challenges encountered with these patients. Material and methods: We reviewed 96 pancreatic cancer patients seen at Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Complex; Ile -Ife; Nigeria; from July 1989 to July 2007. Results: There were ninety six patients diagnosed with cancer of the pancreas but only 80 patients had histological proof of pancreatic cancer. This account for 2.1of all malignancies seen and 238/100000 total admissions during the study riod. The median age is 55.0. There were 62 (64.6) male and 34 (35.4) female with male to female ratio been 2:1. Duration of symptoms in the patients ranges from 4 weeks to 109 weeks. Only three (3.1) patients has mor located in a particular anatomical sub site: two head of pancreas and one tail of the pancreas. Other patients had extensive tumor involving the head and body of the pancreas. Two patients had creaticoduodenectomy; one had resection of the tumor at the tail of pancreas and 45 patients had triple bypass. Patients with low serum albumin and serum sodium and elevated transaminases at presentation; had poorer prognosis than other patients. Conclusion: Pancreatic cancer is not uncommon in our center with male preponderance. Most patients present with advanced condition only amenable to palliative measures. There are significant challenges in the area of diagnosis; screening; treatment and research