A shortage of blood and its by-products has hit Zimbabwe, the country’s blood bank said on Wednesday.
The lack of the vital health product has been precipitated by mass strike actions and scarce fuel and foreign exchange, the National Blood Transfusion Services (NBTS) said.
Blood, essential in surgical operations, for haemophiliacs and for transfusions after major accidents, is the latest product to join the list of shortages in the southern African country.
Among the basics in short supply so far has been petroleum-based fuels, electricity and bank notes.
Zimbabwe’s opposition blames the shortages on economic mismanagement, while President Robert Mugabe says they are a result of a Western plot to topple him.
The NBTS said persistent fuel shortages had adversely affected its blood collection activities, as have the nationwide anti-government work stoppages staged in recent months.
NBTS mobile units normally move to schools, factories and commercial offices collecting blood from donors, but the lack of fuel and work boycotts have impacted negatively on the collection.
The combination of shortages and strikes ”has led to shortages and intermittent supply of blood and blood components to hospitals nationwide”, the NBTS said in a statement on Wednesday.
”The foreign currency shortage has put severe and enormous pressure on NBTS, as the import of essential plasma derivatives is no longer possible,” it said.
Plasma is essential for transfusion to haemophiliacs and is imported because the country does not have the technology to extract it from donated blood.
A spokesperson for the NBTS said everything that is imported, including test kits and anti-D, administered to Rhesus-negative mothers shortly after giving birth, were in short supply.
The blood bank said donors were also feeling compromised because the traditional ”donor comforts” or refreshments given to them after donating blood were not readily available. – Sapa-AFP