Coordination, collaboration, and a refrigerator: How a blood bank in Burkina Faso saves lives | International Rescue Committee

Eastern Burkina Faso has faced a humanitarian crisis since 2015, and displacement, insecurity and closed health facilities force many women to give birth at home, far from care. Postpartum hemorrhage is the country’s leading cause of maternal death. At the Diabo health center, staff had no blood for patients arriving with severe anemia, so the only option was evacuation to a hospital 60 km away. In 2024, 67 of the 140 patients transferred were anemia cases.

With the Fada N’Gourma health district, the IRC opened a blood bank at the Diabo health center, the first rural community blood depot in Burkina Faso. A solar-powered refrigerator keeps blood safe through power outages, and 27 health workers were trained in transfusion safety. Alongside it, 45 village birth attendants received birthing kits and misoprostol, a medication that prevents postpartum hemorrhage.

In 2025, 26 of the 31 patients at Diabo with a clinical need for a transfusion received one on site (83.9%). The other five were referred to Fada, and medical evacuations decreased. The attendants delivered 630 babies and referred 1,453 patients to health facilities. The Ministry of Health also revised its national protocol to authorize community-based misoprostol administration in all areas facing security challenges, a change the report ties directly to the program’s advocacy.

Based on reporting by RELIEFWEB