Lahja Nashuuta
The Blood Transfusion Service of Namibia (NamBTS) reservoirs and banks are depleted, and the country is reportedly in dire need of blood.
New Era Journalist Lahja Nashuuta (LN) speaks to Frieda Vateleni – Asino (FVA), Educational Officer of NamBTS, about the status of blood shortages, challenges and the importance of donating blood.
LN: New Era has learned that NamBTS is currently experiencing low bloodstock, how serious is the situation?
FVA: Namibia is currently in short and low blood supply. The situation is still not under control. We need more blood donations. A sufficient and healthy blood supply is when we are on 12 days of blood supply-we are currently operating on 2-3 days of bloodstock, countrywide.
The demand for blood and blood products has increased in the last couple of weeks, due to incidents which have taken place. Kindly bear in mind that motor vehicle accidents increased during the festive season, mothers are still giving birth and patients are still in hospitals and are in need of critical and urgent blood transfusions to stay alive.
LN: What is the mandate of the NamBTS in this regard?
FVA: It is the only blood transfusion service in our country. Our vision is to never have a shortage of blood supply and that we should supply safe and sufficient blood whenever it is needed.
Our mission is to help save lives by providing this blood to people who are also in need. We test, collect, and distribute blood and blood products to all the medical services in the country.
LN: Why is it important for people to donate blood?
FVA: It’s extremely important for people to donate blood because there are patients who are in hospitals who need blood.
But there are many reasons why somebody would need a blood transfusion, ranging from being anaemic, having sickle cell disease, being cancerous, mothers giving birth, babies that are premature. There are many reasons why people need blood transfusions and that is why it’s mandatory that we have people who are willing to always donate blood.
LN: Who qualifies to donate blood?
FVA: The criteria to donate blood should be that you are between the ages of 16 and 75 years old, that you weigh over 50 kilogrammes, that you are committed to helping others, that you should have eaten at least four hours prior to your donation, and you should live a generally good and healthy lifestyle. You should be healthy so that the blood is safe for yourself as the donor and the patient who is receiving it.
LN: Take us through the process. What happens after one donates and where the blood is stored?
FVA: To ensure the safety and quality of the donated blood and its components through several key procedures, we do donor screening, which includes health and risk assessments. Blood collection includes sterile equipment and Proper Sterile Collection Techniques, testing for infections, blood components separation, storage and transportation ensuring adequate temperature control, donor & recipient and matching and ongoing monitoring and auditing.
Blood donated today typically undergoes processing and testing (i.e., infectious disease and blood group tests). Once the processing and testing are complete, it is usually available for use the next working day. This timeline may vary depending on other logistical factors i.e., collection venue as testing and processing are done centrally in Windhoek.
Blood is divided into three compartments which are red blood cells, platelets and plasma. These are all for different uses, for different reasons, for different patients.
LN: What are some of the hiccups or challenges that you pick up in your quest to source blood from the public?
FVA: Well, the biggest challenge is always misconceptions. People will call you a vampire, they’ll call you names. A lot of people don’t understand the concept of blood donation, they think it’s wicked, they think we are solely here as the blood transfusion service of Namibia to receive blood that is donated and transfused into patients who are in need. So, most of the time it’s misconceptions and the fact that we fall short. There are times that the blood visitors do not have blood.
We are currently also experiencing a low blood supply and remember that when we experience a low blood supply, it’s not only in Windhoek but also countrywide. The whole country is currently experiencing a low blood supply and that’s why we are urging people to come out and donate blood if they meet the criteria to do so.
LN: What have been some of the contributing factors to blood shortage in the country?
FVA: Most of the time we obviously always have low blood supply during this time, it’s January, and we are just coming out of the festive season. We have two reasons why we have a low blood supply and it’s because most of the donors are gone on holiday or vacation and they are unable to donate because they are not near a centre where they can donate. The other reason is that there are so many incidents that happen during the festive season such as traumatic events and car accidents. You must remember that the festive season doesn’t deter people from being sick as well.
There are still mothers in the hospital giving birth, there are still premature babies being born, and there are still people who need blood transfusions because they’ve got some sort of anaemic or liver disease. There are so many reasons why people donate blood. So now these cases always rise during the festive season because the demand for blood goes up and blood donors are not available to donate blood and that’s why we’ve experienced a shortage in the last couple of weeks.
LN: What is your office doing to encourage the public to donate blood? Is there a programme in place that perhaps you can employ to encourage people to come forward?
FVA: Well, we’ve been running campaigns since October. We’ve been running the Day to Care campaign. The campaign basically dares people to care enough and donate blood and save three lives.
Remember that with one donation you are saving three lives at once because you are also producing those components that I mentioned before, the red blood cells, the platelets and the plasma.
The other thing is that we had our festive campaign running where we awarded the people who were donating during the festive season. However, I just want to emphasise that when we do award people and give to people, it’s not to bribe them, it’s to basically say thank you for taking time out of your precious schedule and coming to donate blood and save lives.
We also ran the festive campaign. We are currently running our New Year’s campaign where we just ask you to please commit yourself to donating at least four times this year. We’re still also running our commitment campaign where we award those who have donated four times within the last year.
Hence as of the 20th of January, we will be running our Back-to-School campaign, starting in the secondary schools in the country. We consistently run a series of campaigns, to educate the donors. We offer tours of our facilities, peer promoters training, media days, training of corporates, training tertiary education students, and host educational talks/presentations. Our social media platforms are also updated with information.
LN: In terms of blood banks, how is our country rated compared to others in SADC?
FVA: As I indicated, blood donation has been a challenge. Last year, we received 50 979 units of blood. This has come from 34 559 donors, which represents 1.2% of our three million people in Namibia.
I don’t think that’s okay. We do need more people to come forward and donate blood. Because if it’s only 34 559 keeping a population of three million alive, I don’t think that is okay.
This is why we consistently preach the need for new blood donors. You start donating at the age of 16 when you’re still young, fresh and active. Remember that when you start donating at the age of 16, you will always try to keep yourself healthy and try to live a healthy lifestyle because you know in your head that you need to continue donating and saving lives.
I believe that we can get better in terms of where our country is standing with blood donors and blood donations.
LN: Is there anything else that you would like us to take note of?
FVA: Well, I just want to urge everybody who can donate blood and meets the criteria to please come in and do so. Remember that this is a national crisis.
LN: Any other information you wish to share with the public?
FVA: Everybody is in need of blood. We do not want to face casualties in the hospital because there’s no blood available. So those who are able to come out and donate blood, please, please come out and do so.
You can contact us at 061-386-300 and countrywide find out where you can donate at a place near you.
-lnashuuta@gmail.com