The BloodTrain project at the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut has supported Ghana in the development of regulatory structures for blood and blood products as part of the Global Health Protection Programme.
The aim of the Global Health Protection Programme (GHPP), initiated by the Federal Ministry of Health in 2016, is to support partner countries in the development of resilient public health systems and thus contribute to improving health around the world. The Paul-Ehrlich-Institut contributes to the GHPP via projects such as BloodTrain. The BloodTrain project demonstrates the Institute’s commitment to improving the quality, safety, and availability of blood and blood products in the partner countries of Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
With the support it received through BloodTrain, Ghana published two national haemovigilance guidelines in October 2022 to increase the safety of blood and blood products. These guidelines are now binding for regulators, blood donation facilities, and hospitals in Ghana.
Representatives of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA Ghana), the National Blood Service (NBS Ghana), and hospital transfusion centres have developed a basic national haemovigilance regulatory framework and detailed haemovigilance guidelines with the support of the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut's BloodTrain project.
These documents provide information on the roles and responsibilities of all relevant stakeholders in the field of haemovigilance, including the reporting and investigation of adverse reactions. The guidelines allow for standardised reporting of problems in the blood transfusion chain to FDA Ghana so that it can take any necessary measures.
In the run-up to the development of standardised haemovigilance regulations, the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut's BloodTrain team shared its expertise in a virtual workshop in the summer of 2021 and held an on-site, practice-oriented workshop in Ghana in the spring of 2022. Ghana introduced the nationally standardised haemovigilance regulations with a launch in October 2022.
The launch of the haemovigilance regulatory framework marks an important milestone in the strengthening of blood regulation in Ghana. The Paul-Ehrlich-Institut’s BloodTrain team will also support the FDA Ghana in the practical implementation of regulatory structures within the framework of the GHPP.
Dr Jens Reinhardt (BloodTrain Deputy Project Leader)