Blood shortage causes concern

MARANYANE NGWANAAMOTHO
Staff Writer | Friday May 20, 2011 00:00

Acting Medical Director at the National Blood Transfusion Service, Dr Mukendi Kayembe told Mmegi that the situation will get worse if more people do not start donating blood.

Kayembe advised people to find out what their blood groups are, and that those with negative blood groups come forward to donate. He said that in most cases it is the negative blood groups that are rare to find. 'Negative groups are very rare. People with negatives should be encouraged to come forward more often and donate,' he said.

'There are groups O+, A+, B+, AB+, O-, A-B-, and lastly AB-. Of these groups it is usually difficult to find negative groups,' he said.  Blood is needed mostly for victims of road accidents, women who have just given birth, and patients of AIDS.  Kayembe said that usually people with positives are the most frequent at the centre. Again the same blood groups are the ones in demand because a lot of people fall within the positive groups. However, the negative groups are also in demand since donors are very scarce.

Kayembe said there is 'absolutely no danger in donating blood and that people can donate anytime of year.

'There is no risk at all. Safety is the most important thing in collecting blood. We have very vigorous screening measures to select potential donors. We also ensure that it is safe for you to donate by checking your medical history, blood levels, sexual behaviour and many other things,' he said.

Kayembe said their target donor groups are usually students starting from junior secondary schools. 'About 60 percent of our donors are from secondary schools. But since last year we have not been able to collect blood due to issues of timetable changes and teachers starting to knock off at 4:30pm. It is even worse now due to the ongoing indefinite civil servants' strike,' he said.

Students are mostly the targets because there is still a chance that they have clean usable blood. 'We test donors for HIV, Hepatitis and Syphilis before one donates. So usually the younger age groups do not have these diseases,' he said.  Apart from schools, the National Blood Transfusion Service has other panels like the Botswana Defense Force, companies and churches contributing to the collection of blood, he said. With centres in Gaborone and Francistown it is the only institution that collects blood.

According to World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendations, donating can only be voluntary and cannot be for family replacement. 'Blood donation should be 100 percent voluntary. We cannot buy blood because in some countries there are crooked people who would loaf around hospitals seeking to donate blood for financial gains.

Again we want to ensure safety. If we get HIV infected blood the recipient stands a 100 percent chance of getting infected,' said Kayembe. He said that since 2003 discard rates for infected blood has reduced tremendously.

Discard rates have reduced from 11.8 percent to only 2.5 percent last year. 'This is because of the education that we give people. They know that if they have certain diseases and health issues they cannot donate, and therefore do not come. This also because of the HIV routine testing. People know their status and only those who are negative come,' he said.  A recruitment coordinator, Kenneth Segokgo said that it is important for people to donate because one pint of blood saves at least three lives. 'We get blood cells, for people who are anaemic and those with malaria. We get platelets for people who have lost blood. Again we get plasma for people who suffered severe burns,' he said.