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SA urged to donate blood
22/01/2008 13:39 - (SA)
Gcina Ntsaluba
Johannesburg - People who have O and B blood types are being urged to donate blood to address a current blood shortage in the country.
The South African National Blood Service (SANBS) says people with O and B blood types can donate blood at their nearest blood bank.
"This is a national crisis," said SANBS spokesperson Sini Subrayen, on Tuesday. "We currently have 3.5 days worth of blood stock in Gauteng alone."
Subrayen said that there needed to be at least seven days of blood available.
In Nelspruit, the SANBS has reported that it has only 973 units of blood left, which is about one day's supply for hospitals.
Nelspruit needs at least 7 066 units to have a seven-day supply.
'Abnormal shortages'
"In December we had to cut-back our supply to 13 hospitals because of shortages," said Nelspruit SANBS spokesperson Whanita Horn on Tuesday.
Horn said O blood-types were often in greater demand than other blood types because it was more common.
She said that type Os can donate blood to types A, B and AB, but cannot receive blood from these groups.
Other affected provinces are KwaZulu-Natal, which has only a two-day supply and Gauteng, which has a 3,5 day supply.
Subrayen said the current shortages were "abnormal" as January and February were normally good months.
He said it may be that people are too pre-occupied with settling in at work or school after the holidays.
The criteria for donating blood is that a person must be between the ages of 16 and 65, must weight 50kg or more and must be in good health.
They must also have a sexually safe lifestyle and eat before they donate blood.
- African Eye
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