ZIMBABWE is facing a looming crisis in the supply of bl00d as donations plummet to worrying levels, a new research has revealed.
The revelation should jolt the government into action amid fears of looming blood shortages, experts say.
According to research by various scholars titled Bl00d donation projections using hierarchical time series forecasting: The case of Zimbabwe’s national bl00d bank, there has been a decrease in bl00d donations.
“This suggests the need for blood centre authorities to develop sound bl00d donor management interventions,” the report read.
“Such interventions include an integrated strategy of the entire bl00d safety value chain, including donor education, targeted recruitment and retention, scheduled fixed and mobile bl00d donation drives, safe bl00d collection and donor care and adequate resource allocation.”
The report also said there was a decline in the number of regular voluntary bl00d donors, particularly for bl00d group AB.
This decline poses a significant threat to the availability of bl00d for patients in need of transfusions.
“This can be attributed to a real problem of a continuous decline in numbers of regular voluntary bl00d donors in most bl00d centres,” the report said.
“Low bl00d donations for bl00d group AB are projected to continue in the short to long-term periods.
“Other researchers have attributed the lower donation volumes of female donors to high donor lapsing compared to male donors. Women generally donate bl00d less than men due to deferrals because of iron depletion through menstrual bl00d loss.”
The report indicated that COVID-19 disrupted bl00d donation patterns.
“The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic distorted the bl00d donation patterns such that the developed model did not capture the significant drop in bl00d donations during the pandemic period.”
“Bl00d collections trend took a downturn from April 2020 as the government of Zimbabwe introduced COVID-19 lockdown restrictions to reduce the spread of the pandemic.”
Earlier this year, the National Bl00d Services Zimbabwe called for more bl00d donations as the national bl00d stocks ran critically low.
Source NewsDay
