BLOOD BANK RUNS LOW

Talent Gore

NATIONAL Blood Services Zimbabwe is appealing for donations as the country’s blood banks are running low.

NBSZ communications officer, Kudakwashe Chidziya, said more blood was needed to beef up the blood banks.

“Currently, our blood stocks are slightly lower than the average,” he said.

“Unfortunately, I cannot give statistics but the reason why we are saying the blood banks are low is because we are judging by benchmarks we had set for ourselves and, as it stands, we are slightly lower than the mark.

“Let us all contribute towards boosting our blood stocks, together we can make all blood group types available.

“Currently, our stocks are slightly lower than average and you can make a huge difference by donating blood today.”

Explaining why the blood bank always experiences critical Blood Group O shortages, Chidziya said 52 percent of Zimbabwe’s population were type O blood group while 24 to 26 percent are blood Group A and 18 percent are group Bs.

“When you go into any public forum to collect blood, just know that from all the donations you get, 52 percent are blood group O, 26 Group A and 20 Bs then Group A-B about 4 percent,” he said.

“So the same blood, once we receive it, demand will be in accordance with that same ratio whereby 52 percent of patients in the health facilities are Group O as well so there will be high demand for this blood group.

“It’s not like we are getting or collecting below targets but the blood type is under serious demand.

“It’s plenty in, plenty out.”