01 Sep 2013

The opening of four more blood donation centres in Molepolole, Serowe, Mahalapye, and Maun will improve the current shortage of blood supply in Botswana, an official responsible for blood donation at the Scottish Livingstone Hospital in Molepolole has said.

Speaking in an interview, Ms Seneo Ranonyana, said the four new centres would augment the two existing ones in Francistown and Gaborone, adding that the demand for blood exceeded its supply.

“It is a pity that even with today’s dazzling expertise, no substitute for blood has been found,” she regretted, adding that it was against such background that government had found it imperative to bring more blood donation centres closer to people, the idea being to encourage them to donate blood.

While the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended countries to collect blood units equivalent to two per cent of what their populations could offer annually, the collection of blood in Botswana was only one per cent of the population.

“Botswana needs about 40 000 units of blood per year to address the demand for blood yet it only gets 22 000 units annually, which is far too little to meet the demand,” said the blood donation campaigner. She said during the kick start of the project in Molepolole recently the first client to donate blood was a middle aged male, Mr Ngutjiwa Kadjou, who led by example and more clients were anticipated to flock the place.

Ms Ranonyana said she was really excited about the turn up of clients because since its inception they had managed to collect 24 pints, adding that their target was five clients per day, “we are slowly but surely getting there,” she enthused. Moreover, she encouraged females to come forth and donate as the statistics revealed that of the 24 who donated blood so far, 18 were males while 6 were females. Enlightening people about the donated blood, she said the general uses of donated blood ranged from medical conditions like cancer, bleeding disorder, anemia, surgical conditions, maternal and child conditions.

She further pointed out that if people responded to the blood donation campaign many lives would be saved because deaths caused by the shortage of blood were 100 per cent preventable. Donation of blood is voluntary and payments are made to donors who volunteer to donate blood. She further emphasized that healthy people aged 16-65 years and who weigh 50kg and above may donate. She said people should be healthy and fit, free from Transfusion Transmissible Infections and should not donate on an empty stomach. ENDS