When a person loses excessive blood, there may be only minutes to act. In many parts of Africa, those minutes can slip away as healthcare workers scramble to locate scarce blood supplies.
Blood shortages in Nigeria contribute to the deaths of 152,000 anemic children and 37,000 pregnant women each year and are responsible for innumerable complications for women immediately after childbirth. The World Health Organization has identified postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) as a major cause of maternal death worldwide, with higher risk in developing countries.