Globally, approximately 80 million units of blood are donated each year. Of this total, 2 million units are donated in SSA, where the need for blood transfusions is great because of maternal morbidity, malnutrition, and a heavy burden of infectious diseases such as malaria and HIV [1]. As a resource, allogenic blood has never been more in demand than it is today particularly in in Sub-Saharan Africa. Escalating elective surgery, shortages arising from a fall in supply, a lack of national blood transfusion services, policies, appropriate infrastructure, trained personnel, and financial resources to support the running of a voluntary non-remunerated donor transfusion service, and old and emerging threats of transfusion-transmissible infections have all conspired to ensure that allogenic blood remains very much a vital but limited asset to healthcare delivery in Nigeria.
Blood transfusion in Nigeria is plagued by several challenges. One major challenge associated with the Nigerian National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) is the fact that the service is not backed by legislation. The NBTS is struggling to meet its mandate of supplying safe and adequate number of blood and blood products due to absence of relevant legislative framework that will empower the NBTS and make it more independent and resourceful. Another challenge is the security situation particularly in some parts of the country. Blood banking and transfusion services in the country are fragmented, uncoordinated and unregulated. The safety and quality standards are often compromised due to lack of effective control. Cultural and religious issues such as women’s dependence on men, the erroneous belief that men are healthier than women, that women make monthly blood donations to nature through their menstrual cycle and other factors such as pregnancy and breastfeeding further restrict many women from donating blood in Nigeria [2]. Several national studies describe socio-demographic characteristics of blood donors including male gender, middle age and more educated donor predominance [3-10]. A previous report that investigated donor rates in Germany and Switzerland between 1994 and 2010 suggested the need to intensify efforts to motivate women and lower educated people to give blood [11]. There are many challenges associated with blood safety in Nigeria particularly with regards with accessing safe and adequate quantities of blood and blood products [12]. There is paucity of data on female gender participation in the blood donation process, the challenges associated with female gender participation in the blood donation process particularly in Nigeria is not known. Therefore, the aim of this case study was to investigate the level of female gender participation in the blood donation process in Sokoto, North Western, and Nigeria. Evidence-based data generated will help in the formulation of policy to improve female gender participation in the blood donation process.