National Blood Services Zimbabwe (NBSZ) has stopped blood supplies to hospitals after a generator at its complex went up in flames, Harare’s Herald newspaper reported on Thursday.
Its website said the generator in Harare was used to power refrigerators, 14 cold rooms and laboratories.
The damage to the generator meant staff at NBSZ were working manually, increasing the risk of mix-ups that could lead to patients receiving blood not properly managed.
As a result, blood supplies to hospitals and nursing homes were halted.
It was not clear how the 85kV generator caught fire on Wednesday.
By late afternoon, officials were still battling to repair the imported generator, while others tried to secure places to store blood specimens.
Officials were still to decide where to take blood components or products, which included fresh frozen plasma and platelets usually given to patients with such deficiencies in their blood.
NBSZ spokesperson Emmanuel Masvikeni said the service was considering taking all of its blood samples to health institutions where they would be taken care of.
”Some of the blood should be stored in temperatures that are minus eight degrees Celsius and we cannot delay the relocation or else it will go to waste,” he said. — Sapa