KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 8 — The National Blood Centre needs more donors to come forward as the increase in dengue cases has taken a toll on supplies.
Its director, Dr Noryati Abu Amin, said this was because dengue patients required the replacement of blood products.
“We are doing fine but we need to have at least 3,500 pints of blood in our daily stock. Right now, we are doing everything we can to avoid hitting the critical mark which is 1,500 pints,” she told reporters after the launch of a week-long campaign by the Life Insurance Association of Malaysia (Liam), National Association of Malaysian Life Insurance Fieldforce and Advisers (Namfila) yesterday.
The campaign is aimed at collecting at least 70 to100 pints of blood daily from each of the 37 nationwide locations.
The blood bank collected 675,000 pints of blood last year which helped over 337,000 patients.
She urged Malaysians who are of good health, especially from A blood group, to join the campaign.
Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Rohani Abdul Karim, who launched the campaign, said the campaign was timely as supplies had depleted after the Hari Raya season.
