The South African National Blood Service (SANBS) has appealed to South Africans to donate blood as the festive season approaches. The SANBS says only one percent of the population donates blood regularly. Pleading with South Africans to donate blood, Zikhona Ruiters from the SANBS has emphasized the safety of the process.
“It is very important to South African Blood Service, safety, even though we want people to donate we want the masses to come in, we have to ensure that we give out safe blood to hospitals, babies receive this blood in hospitals so we have quite a number of criteria’s before you donate and once you give us blood and the blood is with us we have great labs that assist us in the process and our labs are rated top in the world, we take pride in that.”
A regular blood donor, Kevin Slattery donates hyper-immune plasma and platelets destined for cancer patients, neo-nates and infants. Plasma is a very versatile blood product and as much as 750 millilitres can be drawn from a single donation. Slattery says it is very important to donate blood.
“Coming up to the festive period and the tremendous carnage we see on our roads , there is a desperate shortage through the festive period and throughout the year, we need to help.” Click below for more on the story:
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