Kathmandu, October 20:

Thanks to the festive season and long vacation in educational institutes, the Kathmandu Valley has been witnessing a shortage of blood since October 8.

We encourage relatives of patients to donate blood so as to address blood shortage, said Sabita Singh, public relations officer at the Central Blood Transfusion Service (CBTS) under the Nepal Red Cross Society. The Kalika FM, Chitwan, had collected 806 unit of blood. “We were confident that there will be no shortage of blood till Tihar, but blood shortage occurred due to increase in accidents and operations in hospitals”.

Only three blood donation camps were conducted during the festive season.

The daily demand for blood in the valley fluctuates between 200 units and 300 units. The Central Blood Transfusion Service (CBTS) and other donor organisations have been organising emergency blood donation camps in various parts of the valley.

“As we have no stock of blood, we have appealed to the Blood Donors’ Association Nepal (BDAN) to help us collect blood.”

Dr Manita Rajkarnikar, director at the Central Blood Transfusion Service (CBTS) under the Nepal Red Cross Society (NRCS), said camps conducted by donor organisations would address the problem of blood shortage within a few days.

The Central Blood Transfusion Service (CBTS) said it collected 82,677 unit of blood last year. Volunteers donated 27,929 unit of blood. The CBTS alone collected 31,293 unit of blood.

There are 50,000 blood donors throughout the nation. Out of them, 30,000 are from the Kathmandu valley.

There are 56 blood banks in Nepal. With just one defreezer, the Central Blood Transfusion Service has been finding it difficult to store components. Plasma can be stored for six months and only 200 units can be preserved in the defreezer.

Daily around 60 units components are demanded. Besides that, small sections can preserve only 10 units.