This 16-month-old has malaria. He needs a blood transfusion, but he has O-negative, a rare blood type that is in short supply at the hospital. The blood bank here survives by asking for a blood donation, usually by a relative, when a patient receives a blood donation. But any number of blood payments will not help this little boy because we have no O-neg to give him.
Blood is so precious here that transfusions cannot be approved unless the patient has a hematocrit of 18% or below. (Hematocrits are a measure of the percentage of red blood cells in the blood. Normal levels are 35-50.) Even a patient hovering around 19-20, which is less than half the normal amount already, cannot receive a transfusion. This little boy has a hematocrit of 10.
His exhaustion, which is obvious from this photo, is a symptom of his low RBC count and oxygen, and malnutrition. Niger has a heavy load of malaria cases. It is the leading cause of death in this country, and a major contributor to the fact that nearly 2 in 5 children will die before the age of five.
EDIT: A donor was found for this boy!
