National blood transfusion services strategy

Abstract

Ethiopia is one of the developing countries in Africa, and 85% of its population lives in rural settlements with the major economic activity being subsistence farming. The National Health Service coverage is low (61.3%) and is compounded by poor quality of service. The number of health facilities and ratio of health personnel to population are still very low. An estimated 60-80 percent of health problems are due to communicable diseases and nutritional deficiencies. Life expectancy at birth is relatively low at 54 years and is further expected to decline to 46.5 years if present HIV infections rates are not maintained. Maternal, Infant and under 5 mortality rates are still high (850/100,000, 97/1000 and 140/1000 live births respectively). Currently the epidemic of HIV is becoming one of serious social, economic and public health problems in the country.