Blood Supply In Cianjur Is Running Low

Deputy Director of UTD PMI Cianjur Susilawati/Photo: Antara

CIANJUR - The Blood Transfusion Unit (UTD) of the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) in Cianjur, West Java, is experiencing a blood supply crisis, especially for group AB, while the bloodstock for other groups is only sufficient for the needs of the next few weeks due to the lack of donors in the last few months.

Deputy Director of UTD PMI Cianjur, Susilawati, said that to meet the need for blood at the hospital, his party relied on donors from the patient's family and mobile units to several productive points.

"We are also cooperating with various offices and agencies within the Cianjur Regency Government, to meet the shortage, especially for blood type AB. As for groups A, B, and O, it is still sufficient for the next week", she said, quoted by Antara on Sunday, January 23.

She explained that as of this Sunday, the stock of blood type A was 48 flasks, blood group B was 46 flasks and blood group O was 30 flasks, while AB was only available 5 flasks, so that the role and concern of the residents were needed to donate blood.

In fact, to increase citizen awareness, her party collaborated with donor groups to return to routinely holding blood donors and during the pandemic, the need for blood every month remained the same, but the number of donors continued to decrease.

"We together with donor groups help each other to socialize the importance of blood donation for health and can help others to save lives. So far, the level of awareness of citizens to donate blood is still lacking", she said.

Meanwhile, Secretary of PMI Cianjur, Heri Hidayat, said his party would continue to assist PMI UTD in meeting the need for bloodstock every month which reached 1,400 pumpkins. Heri explained that during the pandemic the available stock was always minimal because many residents were unable to donate blood for various reasons.

"So far, we have been helped a lot from young donors at high school and equivalent levels, but during the online school pandemic, blood donations to schools cannot be done. As Cianjur enters PPKM (Community Activity Restrictions) level 1, we hope that donors can increase again", he concluded.