adminNATIONAL Blood Services Zimbabwe (NBSZ) says the country is only left with one week’s supply of the most common blood type — blood group O — and is appealing for donations towards this worthy cause.
“Current stocks are sitting at a week’s supply worth of stocks,” said Ms Esther Massundah, the public affairs manager.
Early in the year, NBSZ made a public appeal for people in blood group O to make donations as supplies were critically low and a threat in the event of emergencies.
Ms Massundah said they were stretching out their list of possible donors.
“On recruitment of blood donors besides the schools programme, NBSZ is targeting faith-based organisations, community groups, corporate organisations and social clubs. NBSZ will soon be rolling out blood grouping activities with the aim of registering people who are blood group O for invitation to our branches and activities for blood donation,” she said.
This year’s World Blood Donor Day will also put more emphasis on awareness and the need to become a regular blood donor.
NBSZ will be embarking on some fundraising activities in 2016 and on 1 April 2016, NBSZ will be hosting a Golf Day at the Royal Harare Golf Club. On 18 June 2016 a similar event will be held in Bulawayo.
The objective of the two golf days, Ms Massundah said, is to raise funds to purchase two generators (for Harare and Bulawayo) for their operations.
“The entire system in blood banks is dependent on continuous power supply to function optimally. The system also requires continuous and reliable power supply and therefore products cannot be issued in emergencies during periods of power cuts, hence a generator is imperative,” she said.
Half of the Zimbabwean population is in blood group O. A blood group O donor can donate his or her blood to any other blood donor in a different blood group. However, when an O donor needs blood, they can only get it from an O blood donor.
Adolescents (16-20 years) play a pivotal role in ensuring adequacy of blood nationwide as evidenced by them contributing 70 percent of the total collections.
Type O is the most common blood type and is often sought out for blood donation as well because type O blood can be donated to people of any blood types without fear of rejection.
Online Reporter