By:Sanelisiwe Mangxaba

The South African National Blood Services has urged Durban University of Technology City campus students to donate blood on a regular basis.

The SANBS truck was at the campus on Friday and Muzi Hlengwa, a third year jewellery design student, was one of the first students to donate.

“So many people need blood and when you look at the number of accidents happening you see the importance of donating blood,” he said.

Melanie Padayachee, a SANBS medical technician said 500 pints of blood is needed per day and if that target is not met then there is shortage.

She said only 1% of the population in South Africa donates blood and there is generally always a shortage of blood.

“Our target here in DUT was twelve people and eleven students donated, we almost met our target which is good,” said Padayachee.

Padayachee said the blood bank needed two weeks supply of blood.

Sibongile Mthembu, a SANBS nurse said the organisation did blood drives at universities every two months.

Wentzel Burger, a Btech Video technology student, said it was his second time to donate blood on campus because he “likes the idea of helping someone else”.

According to Mthembu, SANBS uses state-of-the-art testing technology called Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing (NAT) to test every single unit of blood for transfusion transmissible infections, including HIV/AIDS, hepatitis and syphilils.