Your facts on blood donation

June 14 is WORLD BLOOD DONOR DAY. Here is what you need to know;

1. It takes about 30 minutes to complete the blood donation process.

2. Persons in good health can donate blood every 12 weeks (3 weeks) without posing any risks to their lives.

3. To be a blood donor , you should be between 16 and 65 years old and weight at least 45kg.

4. Prospective blood donors first have to pass a brief medical examination before they can be allowed to donate. Pre-donation counseling is given to every prospective donor to inform them about the tests to be done on their blood and the need to discuss test results with ZNBTS donor counselor.

 

5. Blood donation could either be arranged through an appointment at a place of work, school or by going to any Provincial Blood Transfusion Centre.

6. The tools used for blood collection are sterile and disposable and each kit is used only once, for one donor and thereafter disposed off safely. therefore giving blood does not put a donor at risk of getting any infection such as HIV, Hepatitis or syphylis.

-Information courtesy of the Zambia National Blood Transfusion Service

Become a blood donor

By Meluse Kapatamoyo

I was coming from the Zambia National Blood Transfusion Services (ZNBTS) located at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) yesterday when the bus i was on got involved in an accident. Fortunately, there were no serious injuries recorded. But had the accident been fatal, its most likely that we would have needed blood transfusions to survive.



Donate blood and save a life

 In that bus was your mother, father, sister, brother, auntie, nephew, cousin etc but saving our lives would not have been that easy because the availability of BLOOD at ZNBTS cannot always be guranteed. Blood donation in Zambia is very low and lives are being lost because of it. I say thank you to all the BLOOD DONORS and if you are not one, please think about becoming one. You never know whose life you will save, it just might even be yours.

Zambia hosts African Scientific symposium on Blood Transfusion

By Meluse Kapatamoyo

Zambia is tomorrow expected to host the Second International African Scientific Symposium on Blood Transfusion Services.

The two-day event to be held at Radisson Blu Hotel will bring together 50 blood transfusion practitioners and experts from various Francophone and Anglophone African Countries with the objective to discuss blood safety, and laboratory strategies that would contribute towards promotion of safety of blood and blood products.

According to a statement released by the Zambian National Blood Transfusion Service (ZNBTS), the symposium will be held under the auspices of the African Society for Blood Transfusion, SADC Region and spearheaded this year by ZNBTS.

Topics will come from various regions of the Africa Society for Blood Transfusion (AfSBT), namely East African Community (EAC); Economic Grouping of West African States (ECOWAS); North African States (MAGREB); and Southern African Development Community (SADC).

The inaugural symposium was held in Abidjan, Ivory Coast in April of 2012.

Zambia was chosen to host this second Symposium. The Africa Society for Blood Transfusion (AfSBT) plans to make this as an annual event, alternating between Anglophone and Francophone countries.

It is expected that at the end of the symposium on Wednesday, participants would have shared information on improvement of blood safety on the African continent.

This is to facilitate contribution towards attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on health, particularly those related to combating HIV and AIDS, and those focusing on reducing maternal and child mortalities.  PYM