{"id":316,"date":"2016-06-27T10:07:11","date_gmt":"2016-06-27T10:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/?p=316"},"modified":"2016-06-27T10:07:11","modified_gmt":"2016-06-27T10:07:11","slug":"our-life-blood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/2016\/06\/27\/our-life-blood\/","title":{"rendered":"Our life blood."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sibo<\/a><\/p>\n

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) \u201c108 million units of donated blood are collected globally every year. Nearly 50% of these blood donations come from high income countries \u2013 home to less than 20% of the world\u2019s population\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sadly though \u2013 many people still die each year because they do not have access to safe blood and blood products.<\/p>\n

You are probably wondering what exactly is \u201csafe blood\u201d?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s blood that is free from HIV, Hepatitis B and C and syphilis – these can easily be transmitted through transfusion.<\/p>\n

In South Africa, every unit of blood that is collected goes through stringent testing to ensure that it is safe. Scary to note that in some other countries this does not happen due to a variety of reasons \u2013 shortage of staff, irregular supply of test kits, poor quality test kits or general poor quality of the laboratories.<\/p>\n

So how much of your precious life blood do they take? A mere 480ml \u2013 that\u2019s all. It\u2019s less than 10% of the total blood volume of an adult. Most adults have between 4.5 and 5 liters of blood in their bodies. (However, if a person weighs less than 50kg they are not allowed to donate because they don\u2019t actually have enough blood to spare.) The lost fluid is replaced in the body within 36 hours.<\/p>\n

You are, by law, not allowed to give blood more than every 56 days. This means that a person would only give three or four times a year. Not too much to ask really \u2013 is it?<\/p>\n

In South Africa people between the age of 16 and 65 are allowed to give blood \u2013 if they are fit and healthy that is. There\u2019s a questionnaire that you have to fill out \u2013 regarding your health and life style. They do a finger prick test to check iron levels before donating. Blood pressure is also checked to make sure that people are actually healthy enough to donate.<\/p>\n

Remember \u2013 you need to eat and drink enough fluid (not alcohol) before you donate.<\/p>\n

Or course, if you\u2019ve had flu or have been sick in the last few days you are not allowed to donate because it would be bad for you.<\/p>\n

For more information on giving blood \u2013 go to http:\/\/www.sanbs.org.za\/<\/a> .<\/p>\n

Interestingly enough\u2026 dogs can have blood transfusions too \u2013 with dog blood of course.<\/p>\n

If you are<\/em> fit and healthy please consider donating \u2013 you never know when you yourself might need a blood transfusion.<\/p>\n

Stay safe,<\/p>\n

Sibo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) \u201c108 million units of donated blood are collected globally every year. Nearly 50% of these blood donations come from high income countries \u2013 home to less than 20% of the world\u2019s population\u201d. Sadly though \u2013 many people still die each year because they do not have access to … Continue reading “Our life blood.”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[31],"tags":[29],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":317,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316\/revisions\/317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}