The Blood Transfusion Service of Namibia (NamBTS) said it has recorded an increase of 14 per cent in blood donors during the fiscal year ending March 2022.

Its Supervisor for Marketing and Donor Relations Titus Shivute on Tuesday said the blood supply has increased in a positive way compared to previous years, with 2300 units of blood received in 2021, and 500 more units in 2022 donated over the same period.

Shivute said the main concern right now is the consistency with which blood donors donate blood, noting that Namibians donate blood for a variety of reasons that are not always in line with the reality that the NamBTS deals with on a daily basis.

He said blood units have a shelf life and must be replenished on a regular basis adding that normal red blood cells have a shelf life of 37 to 42 days, during which time they can be used, and that platelets expire five days after the blood is donated.

“These are some of the mitigating factors that we are working with on a daily basis. It also makes it difficult to build up a massive reserve; we need a consistent supply to ensure that the units are also used by the various facilities based on the demands that they are requesting.

A huge contributing factor to the increase was obviously the fact that there were fewer public holidays observed over the past festive season, which meant we were able to host more blood donation drives to give more people the opportunity to donate blood around the country,” he said.

He encouraged the donors to donate blood every two months and urged these donors to develop a culture of being aware of this information and thus donating blood on a regular basis.

“The main key intervention that we’ve implemented is hosting blood drives around the country at various institutions after the two-month period has lapsed,’ he said.

Currently, only one per cent of Namibia’s population donates blood each year. To meet the country’s demand, NamBTS requires 160 units of blood from 160 people every day.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency