Students of FUNAAB, voluntarily donating blood during a three-day programme, organised by the NBTS, Abeokuta Centre.
Students of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), have rendered humanitarian services by voluntarily donating blood during a three-day programme, tagged Blood Drive campaign.
The Blood Drive, an initiative of the Federal Ministry of Health, was organized by the National Blood Transfusion Services (NBTS), Abeokuta Centre.
According to an official of NBTS, Mrs. Tosin Oshofisan, the rationale behind the exercise was to create enlightenment on the benefits of voluntary donation of blood and to make safe blood accessible to the sick.
Mrs.Oshofison stated that the standard global practice is for hospitals to have adequate blood in their Blood Bank, to meet the needs of their patients, but regretted that the reverse was the case in Nigeria.
She noted that in Nigeria, blood is either sourced from paid donor or through family replacement, resulting into the prevalence of infected blood, which causes the death of millions of Nigerians due to Transfusion Transmissible Infections (TTIs).
The NBTC official stated that with the blood drive exercise, deaths, usually attributed to shortage of blood in hospitals would be minimized and that patient could be rest assured that such blood are free from infections as they would have been screened for Hepatitis B and C, Syphilis and HIV ( Types I and II).
Highlighting the benefits of engaging in voluntary blood donation, Mrs. Oshofisan said donors would be assisted to do away with dead blood cells and stay healthy.
She seized the opportunity to call on members of the University community to voluntarily donate blood, provided they fall within the age bracket of prospective donors, which is, 16 – 65 years and that male donors can donate quarterly while female can only donate, once in four months.