Woman launches online blood bank

Melissa was a nursing student when she got the idea for this organisation. A week after seeing Rita die, she found out that a hospital 20 minutes away from her had the required blood. So she thought of a solution so that this wouldn’t happen again.

Infiuss consists of an online blood band management system that allows hospitals with blood banks to connect with hospitals with blood banks by collecting blood and dispatching. The project uses simple technologies to help increase the blood supplement across hospitals in Cameroon. It’s the first blood bank managing system in Cameroon.

Blood banks in Cameroon only release blood after they find two or three replacement donors. So Melissa created a database of donors and got hospitals to get on board the then worked on the logistics (setting up and growing a database, getting motorbikes and training drivers and getting the word out to healthcare professionals).

The donation process works by having the donor going to a centre, registrating, getting the blood screened, making the donation and then getting a refreshment. Then the blood bags are delivered.

In the year since its launch, Infiuss’ motorbikes have delivered more than 2,300 bags of blood (sourced from three existing blood banks) to patients at 23 hospitals in Yaoundé and Douala.

In 2019, Melissa hopes to “double or even triple” these numbers, while also expanding to other cities in Cameroon and leveraging Infiuss’ database of donors to establish a physical blood bank owned by Infiuss. It reduced the average time it takes for a patient to get a blood transfusion from about a week to an hour.

Infiuss also features an Android app that can be used if a person wants to be a donor, request blood or be a volunteer.

The project has already won several awards.

Adapted from: https://bit.ly/2uiNvVG

More info: https://infiuss.org/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ip1Xo86_pTI