ONLINE BLOOD DONATION SYSTEM
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 Introduction
Access to sufficient supply of blood, its products and its safe transfusion services is an essential part of any strong health system, it is also an important component towards achieving the goal of universal health coverage (WHO 2016). Blood is universally recognized as the most precious element that sustains life; it saves innumerable lives across the world in a variety of conditions (Nazar 2015). WHO reported that:
Blood is a vital health care resource used in a broad range of clinical services. In developed countries, transfusion is most commonly used for supportive care in cardiovascular and transplant surgery, massive trauma, and therapy for solid and hematological malignancies; in developing countries, on the other hand, it is more often used to treat pregnancy-related complications and severe childhood anemia.
However, there are many issues that must be taken care of during blood transfusion to avoid infecting the sick person with another disease. Blood can save lives, but can also be a vector for harmful infectious diseases, such as HIV and hepatitis (WHO). The objective of this report is to provide an overview of the current system of blood donation, safety, sufficiency and integrity locally. Nigeria has the largest sickle cell disease (SCD) prevalence in the world; approximately 2.0% of newborns have the disease with a projected exponential increase in the coming years (Ijeoma et al, 2016).
1.1 Background of the Study
There is a major imbalance between developing and developed countries in the level of usage and access to safe blood. Volunteer blood donors account for less than half of the blood supply in developing countries; and few countries have mobilized efforts to encourage voluntary blood donation (VBD) (Salaudeen et al, 2011). In many local hospitals people suffers on the course of donating their own blood and thus attract some to revoke their good intention. Barriers to maintenance of adequate and safe blood supply in developing countries exist at all levels. These include infrastructure challenges such as problems with refrigeration and electricity needed to store donated blood, low funding for purchase of blood-banking equipment and test kits are inadequate (Salaudeen et al). Another issue faced by health system and sick persons who desperately needs blood donation to survive is the fact that the number of beneficiaries is significantly higher than the number of blood donors. Human blood is scarce, valuable and in high demand but availability of low-risk blood donors in Nigeria and many developing countries is a serious challenge and of public health concern, while the need for blood is universal (Salaudeen et al). Therefore, there is need to optimize the system of access to free and safe blood by the beneficiaries.
1.2 Statement of the problem
According to The World Health Organization almost 800 women die every day from severe bleeding during pregnancy and delivery; many other patients die in hospitals due to inability to find compatible blood donors. Today, in many developing countries, blood supply is critically inadequate (Muthoka & Mwaura n.d.). One of the biggest problems in the health sector in Nigeria is the daily projecting mortality rate, however each death is caused by one disease or the other. But lack of blood by the people suffering from sickle cell anemia, malaria, hepatitis and other related blood damaging diseases are making bigger figures statistically during the analysis of the mortality rate by respective diseases. The delivery time has been a death trap for women especially in the remote areas because of the amount of blood they loss and their demand to maintain fitness after delivery. However, the package blood works perfectly for patients, nevertheless, it costlier to afford some amount. And of course, in local hospitals the package blood is not found. Another problem is that, the patients do not know exactly who to approach and ask for blood assistance.
There are people that want to donate blood in some time interval, but of course they fear giving out their blood not knowing who will benefit from it. However, the problem is the fact that they do not know the number of patients that needs blood donation of his/her group type. Since to find that, the donor must manually search for the patient that needs donation from him which is obviously time consuming.
1.3 Justification of the Study
Government has been constructing more hospitals in aid of meeting the “Health for all”, a WHO program, which promotes quality health for all, Although more hospitals and clinics have been built, blood banks are always low due to a number of people facing hemorrhaging and some blood types were very rare to find due to low supply (Scouts 2019). A lot of people lack knowledge about blood donation needed for saving lives and spread negative information as well as rumors which led communities to be hostile to the reasons why the blood was needed, According to many people in the communities the blood donations was meant for evil practices and spiritual things (Scouts). Due to lack of this awareness GHB recorded many deaths as a result of blood insufficiency issues while the demand out forces the supply of blood. Over a million blood units are collected from donors every year, and many more millions still need to be collected to meet global demand and ensure sufficient and timely provision of blood (Nwankwo et al, 2012). As per the information obtained from Blood Bank in GHB based on observation, there is growing need of blood but one cannot produce blood in laboratory. Blood bank and hospital are depending on the blood donated by the donors. So, to promote donors to donate blood. Blood bank and hospital organize blood donation Camps or one can call donors by calling them by the Phone number provided by the donor in the form. The existing system is the manual system in which the donor first visits the hospital and fills a form, and finally donate blood. However, making some major parts of the logistic required to donate blood will tremendously help adjust the system to better system, and the significances that will be achieved are listed below:
i. To provide blood donor and donation statistics to the local government
ii. To provide an alert system that reminds donors when their blood donation date is due and therefore makes them regular blood donors.
iii. To provide awareness on the importance of donating blood and encourage people to be regular blood donors
iv. To create and maintain a community database of blood donors and their details.
v. To reduce the mortality rate caused by lack of blood.
vi. To reduce the costs of logistics during blood transfusion (especially when buying packaged blood).
1.4 Aims and objectives
The aim of this project in to developed an online platform that allows people donate blood and on the other hand gives an equal chance to people who are in urgent need of blood to benefit from blood donors as fast as possible.
The aims can be achieved through the following objectives:
i. To design user friendly online blood donation platform
ii. To reduce time taken on searching who can share his blood to the person in need.
iii. To reduce the time taken testing the blood group of the parties.
iv. To allow both parties (Donors and beneficiaries) to know how many people need their assistance and how many people can assist them respectively by finding their respective blood groups.
1.5 Scope of the Study
This prototype used GHB situated in Bajoga metropolitan as a case study, hence the prototype will work based on the information collected from sick persons in GHB and other individuals.
1.6 Limitations of the Study
Some limitations associated with this application are.
i. The prototype can only be use for54 blood donation.
ii. The prototype can only notify users through short messages.
iii. The prototype uses English language only.
1.7 Resources and technology used
To make the implementation of this project a success, clear and within the expected schedule, Rapid Application Development (RAD) model will be adopted for this work Hypertext preprocessor (PHP) Scripting language will be used for backend programming for the User interface design HTML5, CSS and Bootstrap framework will be used and Javascript for the User experience.
1.8 Definition of Terms
Bootstrap - Bootstrap is a free and open-source CSS framework directed at responsive, Mobile First front-end web development (Bootstrap Cheat Sheet 2021).
CSS- Cascading styles sheet. It is use for changing the view of the contents of the web page by applying specific or general styles to these contents (CSS Cheat Sheet 2021).
DonorApp – an online platform for safe, healthy and free blood donation system.
GHB – General Hospital Bajoga
GSPB – Gombe State Polytechnic Bajoga
HTML- hypertext markup language. The language for building the skeleton of a website or web application.
JavaScript- JavaScript is high-level, often just-in-time compiled, and multi-paradigm. It has curly-bracket syntax, dynamic typing, prototype-based object-orientation, and first-class functions. Javascript defines the behavior of a web page (Javascript for Impatient Programmers 2021).
MySQL - is a database system used on the web.
Online – activity that is performed on the internet.
PHP - Stands for "Hypertext Preprocessor." (It is a recursive acronym, if you can understand what that means.) PHP is an HTML-embedded Web scripting language (PHP Programming Cookbook n.d.).
SCD - Sickle Cell Disease
VBD – Voluntary Blood Donation.
WHO – World Health Organization.
XAMPP- is a free and open-source cross-platform web server solution stack package developed by Apache Friends, consisting mainly of the Apache HTTP Server, MariaDB database, and interpreters for scripts written in the PHP and Perl programming languages (XAMPP 2020).
1.9 Organization of the study
This project is made up of five chapters and the contents of each chapter are listed.
Chapter one
This chapter includes the following
i. Introduction.
ii. Background of the Study.
iii. Statement of the problem.
iv. Justification of the Study.
v. Aim and objectives.
vi. Scope of the Study.
vii. Limitation of the study.
viii. Resources and Technologies Used.
ix. Definition of Key Terms.
x. Chaptalization.
Chapter Two
This chapter includes Literature Review which contains the following.
i. Theoretical concepts and
ii. Review of Related Literatures (Existing Systems)
Chapter Three
Design and Methodology: this chapter should describe the methodology of the work done and should take into consideration the following.
i. Introduction.
ii. Preliminary Investigation.
iii. Feasibility Study.
iv. Overview of the Existing System.
v. Analysis of the Existing System.
vi. Overview of the Propose System.
vii. Analysis of the propose System.
viii. System Design.
Chapter Four
System Implementation and Testing: This chapter presents the result and interpretation of analysis of data collected, observation made on information gathered. This chapter consist of the following parts.
i. Introduction.
ii. System implementation.
iii. System Testing.
Chapter Five
This chapter contains.
i. Summary.
ii. Conclusion and
iii. Recommendation references and appendices.
CHAPTER TWO
Literature Review
2.1 Theoretical Background
This chapter will give the details of the researches made by other people on the project topics, hence it cites all relevant sources. One of the treats in the health sectors of the developing countries is the projecting number of mortality rate due to the enormity of the deadly diseases. Many of these diseases can only be treated effectively if the patient is having sufficient blood. Otherwise must need blood transfusion to adapt the required treatment and increase the chance of survival. But the major problem in the developing countries is the steps followed in the blood collection and transfusion. The process of managing the blood bag that is received from the blood donation events needs a proper and systematic management (Sulaiman et al, 2019). The blood bag must be handled with care and treated thoroughly as it is related to someone’s life (Sulaiman et al). Even though online blood donation system will help reduce the risks of illegal and inappropriate blood transfusion, another issue that become a burden to the availability of blood in the blood bank is the accelerating number of people who needs blood every day. As research shows that Nigeria has the largest sickle cell disease (SCD) prevalence in the world; approximately 2.0% of newborns have the disease with a projected exponential increase in the coming years (Ijeoma et al, 2016). Apart from the people suffering from sickle cell disease, many other people like people having diabetes, hepatitis and people who loss blood in an accident also needs blood to recover what they lost. According to UNICEF (2016), thirty-seven children are born every single day in Nigeria. This means that at least there is need of about same number of blood bags for those women alone. According to The World Health Organization almost 800 women die every day from pregnancy and childbirth complications. Severe bleeding during pregnancy and delivery is the single biggest cause of maternal death; many other patients die in hospitals due to inability to find compatible blood donors. Today, in many low and middle-income countries, blood supply is critically inadequate.
There are some research on automation of blood donor database. Because for efficient blood donor recruitment different factors are to be considered and different researchers used different factors in the recruitment process. AlRashdi et al. (2018) assessed some factors that influence the levels of recruitment for blood donations in Saudi Arabia. Ferguson (2015) used Mechanism of Altruism -MOA approach in the case of recruitment of blood donor. Alfouzan (2014) did a research to measure the level of knowledge on blood donation, to identify positive and negative attitudes, find the obstacles, and suggest some motivational factors. Alfouzan (2014) did a research to measure the level of knowledge on blood donation, to identify positive and negative attitudes, find the obstacles, and suggest some motivational factors. The outcomes of the researches are shown below in table 1.
Table 1: Reference Details
S/N Authors Year of
Study Details of Work Factors considered for Study Outcomes
1 Al-Rashdi et al.
(2018) 2018 Assessing the factors of blood donors which influences the
Recruitment for blood donation in Saudi Arabia. Motivation in the donation of blood. Few people intend to give voluntary blood
transfer and most of the past donors had to
Donate in unavoidable situations.
2 Ferguson (2015) 2015 Mechanism of altruism approach is used to recruit blood donors. Mechanism of altruism MOA suggested
Financial incentives in forms of gifts and movie tickets are efficient in blood donation.
3 Alfouzan, N. (2014) 2014 Measure the level of knowledge on blood donation, to identify positive and negative attitudes, find the
obstacles, and suggest some motivational factors It is a statistical study to find the positive and negative attitudes for blood donation. Majority of educated population of about 31 to 50 years age are
more likely to donate
and thus suggested
some education
Program arrangement to increase awareness of the range of people.
2.1.1 Factors to be considered to be blood donor
These are some of the factors which are considered worldwide or in most of the countries of the world as parameters for recruitment of blood donor. During the work of this project we observe the following as factors to be considered during blood donation: -
Age Limit
Age limit is a vital factor in blood donation. The safe age limit is 18 to 65. RBC is produced from bone marrow of long bones like femur and humerus. Below 18 the stage is of bone marrow maturation and besides body itself needs hemoglobin in puberty stage. For this reason, below 18 is not safe for donation of blood. On the contrary after age of 65 people goes through osteoporosis for which results in bone marrow destruction and reduction of RBC. For this reason, above 65 is marked as unsafe for blood donation (Subrata et al, 2019).
Hemoglobin Count
Hemoglobin counts minimum of 125 g/L for females and 130 g/L for males (Canadian Blood Services, 2018). Below this limit anybody will suffer from deficiency of blood if donated.
Blood Pressure
For blood donation blood pressure must be 90 to 180 for systolic and 50 to 100 for diastolic (The American National Red Cross, 2018). The reason is if the blood pressure is below normal then blood will not come out by syringe whereas if the blood pressure is above normal then the flow of blood pressure cannot be controlled.
Diseases
If the donor is affected by any kind of disease there is a possibility of transmission of the disease to other host bodies. In case of fatal diseases like AIDS it may dangerous. For this reason donor must be free from any kind of diseases (Arif, 2012). Besides patient of hepatitis B is not allowed to donate blood because it may even be the reason of death of blood receiver.
Drug Addiction
Drug addicts are prone to fatal diseases. For this reason, drug addicts are not allowed to donate blood. Because their blood may transmit diseases (Subrata et al).
Last Date of Blood Donation
The duration of last blood donation must be 12 weeks for males and 16 weeks for females (Give Blood, 2018). The reason is RBC needs 4 months to regenerate. In case of females the duration is more due to menstruation.
2.2 Review of Related Literature (Existing System).
As per the information obtained from Blood bank and Hospital, we understood the following working system of blood banks. There is growing need of blood but one cannot produce blood in laboratory. Blood bank and hospital are depending on the blood donated by the donors. So to promote donors to donate blood. Blood bank and hospital organize blood donation Camps or one can call donors by calling them via the Phone numbers provided by the donor in the form. The existing system is the manual system in which the donor first visits the hospital and checks for following factors.
Filling up the form: - The hospital provides a form which should be filled by the donor. The donor fills up the appropriate information of the form. The employee in the hospital checks the form whether information entered is correct or not and submit the form.
Donating blood: - After the form has been submitted the hospital checks the blood samples for any disease, if any disease is found, the blood from that donor is not rejected and if no disease is found the blood from that donor is collected.
Searching record: - In this if blood is required for a patient. The hospital will check whether blood is available to them if not they search for donor from records in files. This process is time consuming and requires more amount of time. At present, the public can only know about the blood donation events through conventional media means such as radio, newspaper or television advertisements.
2.2.1 Critique of the Existing System.
There is no information regarding the blood donation programs available on any of the portal. There is no centralized database of volunteer donors. So, it becomes really tedious for a person to search blood in case of emergency. The only option is to manually search and match donors and then make phone calls to every donor. There is also no centralized database used to keep the donors' records. Each bank has their own records of donors. If a donor makes donation in different hospital, no previous records can be traced except if the donor brings along the donation certificate. Hence, the donor is considered to be a first-timer if they make blood donation in a new place. The current system that is using by the blood bank is manual system. With the manual system, there are problems in managing the donors' records. The records of the donor might not be kept safely and there might be missing of donor's records due to human error or disasters. Besides that, errors might occur when the staff keeps more than one record for the same donor. Therefore, the existing system has following flaws.
i. Requires huge manpower.
ii. Extra clerical works.
iii. Error handling is not efficient.
iv. More paper work.
v. Time consuming.
Date: 2026-08-12 00:00:00.000000