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Hugh Gombakomba Herald Reporter
National Blood Services Zimbabwe (NBSZ) is appealing for blood donations of Group O whose stocks are critically low, NBSZ spokesperson Ms Esther Massundah has said.

Early this month, the NBSZ made a similar public appeal following depletion of the blood group but she said the response was slow.

Ms Massundah said regardless of some positive response from its donors, the progress made was still insignificant to satisfy required levels.

She said this had resulted in the institution failing to meet orders from various health institutions.

“NBSZ is still experiencing challenges in meeting blood Group O orders especially in Harare where we have the major referral hospitals. The inflow has not been enough to meet the full demand as we still have outstanding orders to supply,” said Ms Massundah.

NBSZ hoped the opening of schools would alleviate the situation since school children constitute the largest group of its donor base.

“The NBSZ laboratory services have noticed a slight increase of blood Group O from the Harare branch and Joina City static clinics,” said Ms Massundah.

She said the blood Group O type reserves have been running low because it is a universal blood group, which entails that most people in the country carry that same blood type.

Ms Massundah said other blood groups still had enough stocks, as they were not increasingly sought after like blood Group O which is a universal blood type.