Blood supply in South Africa as gone down to just 1.5 days of Group O stock, according to the South African National Blood Service (SANBS).<\/p>\n
The blood service is calling on all blood donors to come forward to donate blood urgently, to stop cancer sufferers, people in life-threatening situations and anyone else who needs or relies on blood transfusions being at risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe blood stock is dangerously low. The blood supply is currently at just 1.5 days Group O stock, amounting to less than 1500 units of O blood available around the country,\u201d says Silungile Mlambo, national marketing manager for the SANBS.<\/p>\n
\u201cA healthy blood stock is 5000 units of O blood a day. The situation, simply, is critical. We are appealing to South Africans \u2013 active donors, lapsed donors and potential donors \u2013 to stand together right now to bolster the national blood stock, and we thank them, in advance, for pulling together.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Mlambo says blood is critical for cancer patients and women in childbirth \u2013 who constitute by far the greatest groups of people requiring blood transfusions.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo many people in life-threatening situations require blood. It\u2019s what saves a haemorrhaging mother\u2019s life, so that she can raise and love the baby she has just brought into the world. It\u2019s what saves someone suffering complications during major surgery. It\u2019s what helps cancer patients endure and survive treatment.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that\u2019s the point: it\u2019s not just blood. It\u2019s saving people\u2019s lives, through a simple, easy donation,\u201d says Mlambo.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The SANBS is therefore urgently appealing to South Africans to step forward and donate blood immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cMore than that, however, the SANBS appeals to residents to become regular donors. By donating blood only four times a year, we can easily avoid situations such as the one in which we find ourselves,\u201d says Mlambo.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Donors can donate their blood at the following donor centres:
\n<\/b><\/p>\nHighveld Mall (Edgars Entrance)\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
Open: Monday to Friday 09:00 to 17:00, Tuesdays open until 18:00, Saturdays – 09:00 to 16:00, and Sundays 10:00 – 14:00
\n<\/b><\/p>\nMiddelburg Donor Centre is at Wonderpark<\/b><\/p>\n
Open: Monday to Friday 09:00 to 17:00, Tuesdays open from 12:00 to 19:00 and Saturdays from 09:00 to 13:00.
\n<\/u><\/b><\/p>\nGroblersdal<\/u><\/b><\/p>\n
Open: Every Wednesday at the Methodist Church Hall from 09:30 to 14:00.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
While the Western Cape battles a severe, prolonged drought, the rest of South Africa is currently facing scarcity of a different kind \u2013 a critical lack of blood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2844,"featured_media":72208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"hasGravity":false,"cxt_article_byline":"Yaseen Gaffar","cxt_disable_google_ads":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news-headlines"],"category_labels":{"Category":"News","SubCategory":"Local news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2844"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}