It was a myth that blood was only needed for accidents
|||Three children who owe their lives to complete strangers on Thursday pleaded with people to donate blood.
That life-saving blood was like “a magic potion”, 10-year-old Juwairya Limalia, who had cancer of the glands, told the annual media breakfast hosted by the SA National Blood Service yesterday.
Robert Eddels, 10, told how his mom, Colleen, had called the blood he needed after he was diagnosed with leukemia his “magic red muti”.
And 13-year-old Junior Zulu had needed “a lot” of blood when he went into hospital for an ear operation, but, when he didn’t stop bleeding, was diagnosed with leukemia.
All three are now in remission.
“Not many things are free, but donating blood is,” Juwairya said, urging existing donors to continue saving lives and others to consider becoming donors.
Gail Nothard, SANBS marketing consultant, said the country needed to collect 3 000 units of blood every day to meet the demand, and KZN needed about 500 to 600 a day.
The donor base had increased by 65 000 donors in the past five years and blood collections were up from 695 000 in 2006 to 793 000 this year.
Some 40 percent came from universities and schools and when they closed for the holidays, collections dropped.
It was a myth that blood was only needed for accidents, she said.
The main requirement was everyday medical needs, which was backed up by Dr Monica Vaithilingum, a paediatrician haematologist who deals with children with blood disorders.
“We need to get the message out that when we hit a critical shortage, we need your help.
“It is not just about trauma. It is about patients who have to get their treatments and have to have regular blood transfusions,” she said. “When they need it, they need it now. We can’t afford to have a shortage.”
Guests heard how SA was among the countries which had the safest blood in the world.
It was the first country in the world to introduce a highly sophisticated testing system in 2005 (NAT, the Nucleic Acid Testing), which is able to pick up any risk of HIV in a few days (as opposed to the previous two to three weeks).
Since the system was introduced, there had not been a single HIV-related case.