NamBTS received nearly 42 000 blood donations between 2021 and 2022
FOR the fiscal year 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022, the Blood Transfusion Service of Namibia (NamBTS) received 41 734 blood donations. NamBTS chief operating manager Christa Gouws revealed this on Tuesday during a media day in the capital, stating that blood donations increased by 9.5%, compared to the previous year.
Gouws said the increase was primarily driven by demand for group O-blood type and that, in total, 26 667 donors donated blood, representing a 14% increase over the previous year.
“The increase was largely driven by more new donors, as well as donors who returned after not donating for more than a year,” she explained.
Approximately 74% of whole blood donors were repeat donors, while 26% were new donors.
According to her, 1.0% of Namibians donated blood, up from 0.9% the previous year.
In terms of blood safety in Namibia, the proportion of blood donations that tested positive for various infectious diseases, also known as TTI, was lower than the five-year average of previous years as it was at 1.14%, with no significant change in positive donations from the previous year.
“The positive donation rate for HIV was 0.14%, 0.55% for Hepatitis B virus, 0.14% for Hepatitis C virus and 0.31% for Syphilis. Given the high prevalence of these infectious diseases in Namibia’s general population, these percentages remain very low and acceptable,” she said.
Gouws noted that the demand for blood supplied by NamBTS for transfusion in State hospitals increased by 9.6% during the review period, while it increased by 0.1% in private hospitals.
“Overall, the amount of blood we supplied increased by 7.9% during the review period. The main factor driving the increase in blood usage was an increase in blood requests for casualties such as car accidents and stab wounds, maternity and cancer cases, as well as planned surgical procedures,” she explained.