SANBS needs more black donors

THE Blood Service in South Africa (SANBS) hosted a media breakfast at Suncoast last Friday.

On the day there were two guest speakers – Miso Khoza (15) and Claudette Gibb – who are cancer survivors. The two shared their stories and emphasised the importance of donating blood.

SANBS needs to collect approximately 3 000 units of blood a day in order to meet the demand from patients of South Africa for various blood products. Each unit of whole blood is processed into a number of components, which include red blood cells, platelets, plasma, clotting factors, albumin and globulins, in order to derive maximum benefit.

Sifiso Khoza, regional marketing manager for SANBS for the KZN and EC regions, said most people tended to take blood for granted; however, many life-saving medical interventions and procedures would simply not be possible without blood being available.

”I am sure that we all have family or friends who may have had cardiac surgery or a caesarian section or chemotherapy. The reality is that many of these procedures would not be able to take place if blood or blood components were not readily available.

Khoza said they rely on the goodwill of voluntary blood donors in order to ensure that sufficient blood is available daily. In this regard, they face many challenges and getting sufficient blood is therefore an ongoing challenge for donor staff, and it is especially difficult in winter (with flu and school holidays, for example), and November and December (exams and long holidays).

SANBS has introduced various innovative systems across the value chain to ensure availability of blood cost effectively. These included emergency blood fridges in rural hospitals, blood on a returnable basis, opening of new blood banks for easier access and donor clinics operating seven days a week.

“We place enormous emphasis on the safety and quality of the blood supply to ensure that the patient is not negatively affected as a result of the transfusion,” said Khoza.

SANBS is striving to develop a blood donor base that matches the diverse nature of the population. This means growing the number of young donors and black donors. In recent years, the number of black donors has been increasing steadily and currently four out of 10 blood donors are black.