[Kenya] Amref Health Africa partners with Sisu Global Health and Surgipharm to improve access to blood

Amref Health Africa in Kenya, Sisu Global Health and Surgipharm have unveiled a partnership to improve access to blood and safer surgical outcomes during medical missions and emergencies in Kenya. The partnership is aimed at increasing blood access in all hospitals to reduce internal bleeding-related deaths through the adoption of Hemafuse^TM, an innovative medical device that allows clinicians to reuse a patient’s own blood gathered from internal bleeding.
This initiative comes in the wake of the recent move by the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to stop its annual funding of KShs2 billion for blood collection and testing services in Kenya.
This development comes at a time when the country is facing a chronic shortage of blood as the collection of blood has been plagued by the lack of funds for screening tools and human resources to collect and store blood.
“Blood access is critical to safe surgery. Standard surgical practices require two units of blood on-hand before surgery commences, but there is a severe shortage of blood in the country. Surgeries may be delayed or not performed due to a lack of blood, resulting in increased illness and death. This partnership will make use of an innovative solution that will ensure that patients with internal bleeding have a chance of survival,” said Amref Health Africa in Kenya’s Country Director, Dr Meshack Ndirangu.
Hemafuse, a product by Sisu Global Health, can filter and pump blood from an internal haemorrhage into a blood bag, allowing it to be re-transfused to the same patient. The device can also be reused up to 25 times. This provides an alternative to donor blood.
“It is inspiring to see Hemafuse used to save lives. With this partnership with Kenya, we look forward to enabling thousands of more clinicians to save more lives across the country. The work we are doing is incredibly important and we are proud to have such a strong partnership with Amref to provide access to blood across Kenya,” said Sajju Jain, Chief Operating Officer at Sisu Global Health.
Speaking at the event, Mr Rakesh Vinayak, Director-Sales & Marketing at Surgipharm, said that the pharmaceutical industry has a critical role to play in finding effective and sustainable solutions to providing access to today’s most pressing health concerns. “Surgipharm has a highly specialised and experienced management team and our relationships with different players in Kenya’s health sector complements and strengthens our existing skillset in logistics across the country. We are excited about the prospects that this partnership brings.”
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