20 Feb 2017

Botswana National Blood Transfusion Services (BNBTS) nursing officer Mr Nametso Tholo  has urged Batswana to save lives by donating blood.

He said this in an interview during the BNBTS outreach programme in Palapye aimed at sensitising the community about the BNBTS services and the importance of blood donation.

He said blood donation is an opportunity to give blood to save a life adding that the mandate of BNBTS is to collect safe blood and its products to distribute it to hospitals for therapy.

However he said it is worrisome that the response is not impressive, thus the demand for blood far exceeds the quantity availabe at the hospitals.

He noted that Botswana needs about 40 000 units of blood per year but currently the organisation collects about 22 000 units of blood yearly.

Mr Tholo went further to say one per cent of people donate blood annually despite that over 80 per cent of people may need blood at the same time.

He explained that a male donor is able to donate blood up to four times a year which is every other three months whilst their female counterparts can go up to three times yearly.

The BNBTS, he said is targeting healthy people of 16 years to 65 years with a weight of 50 kg and above of which only 450 millimetres is taken from the donor which is less than 10 per cent of a healthy person's blood.

Mr Tholo stated that his organisation also tests for diseases such as HIV, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, Syphilis as well as blood group.

He said it is worrisome that some Batswana demand compensation to donate blood, adding that the government or BNBTS cannot compensate the nation for this.

He said to increase the quantity of blood needed, education on transfusion should be enhanced to improve the situation, adding that the blood donated help save lives of victims of road accidents and low blood patients. BOPA