NGOs on a mission to restore Sabah’s blood supply

Urgent need: Chan (left) is calling on Sabahans to help replenish the state’s blood supply.

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah’s non-governmental groups are working closely together to help replenish the state’s blood supply after most were not able to hold any blood donation drive for the past two years.

One of these is the Sabah chapter for the Malaysian Red Crescent Society (MRCS), which despite being the only organisation allowed by the authorities to hold blood drives in the past few years, was still unable to meet its targets.

Sabah MRCS blood donation programme chairman Leslie Chan Boon Siang said they are targeting to collect at least 10,000 pints of blood for the state this year, with 2,000 pints in a single day during the World Blood Donors Day on June 11.

This will be in addition to the daily collection by MRCS.

“We could only collect 7,717 pints of blood in 2020 because people were scared to go out at the height of the Covid-19 situation,” he said in an interview.

The following year, he added, more people donated blood, with 9,371 pints collected.

“Now that the Covid-19 rules are more relaxed this year, more NGOs other than us have been holding their own campaigns so we want to do our bit too,” said Chan.

Blood supply in Sabah reached a critical stage in May last year, with even the state government calling on Sabahans to donate blood at their respective district blood banks after a drastic drop in supplies.

Sabah Covid-19 spokesman Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun said then that although hospitals in Sabah had taken precautionary measures, the implementation of the various movement restrictions meant existing supplies were affected.

Masidi said he feared that blood stock would drop by as much as 20% in 2021 following the cancellation of over 200 donation drives.

Sabah, said Chan, needed roughly 300 to 350 pints of blood per day to be used by various types of patients.

This translates to some 8,000 pints each month.

He said a significant number of the supplies was for thalassemia patients.

“Sabah has the highest number of thalassemia patients in the country at nearly 1,900 individuals. Each patient needs two pints per month so this is equivalent to some 3,800 pints.

“This does not even include the blood supplies needed for other treatments like chemotherapy, surgeries and accident-related injuries,” he said, urging the public to turn up and donate blood on World Blood Donors Day on June 11.

World Blood Donors Day is supported by the Sabah Health Department.