Gorontalo has no blood stock

The Indonesian Red Cross office in Gorontalo city has had a near-empty blood storage over the last three days, forcing patients to rely on relatives or friends for blood donations.

Linda Olii, blood transfusion unite head at the office, said Tuesday there were only 22 blood pouches in store. She blamed the stock scarcity on the lack of local people’s awareness of blood donation.

“We no longer have much blood stock,” she was quoted by Antara.

She added that patients had sought their own blood donors, but many of those were unable to donate their blood. “We found the donors were infected with communicable diseases such as syphilis and hepatitis and their blood could not be used,” she said.

The office needs at least 800 pouches each containing 350 cubic centimeters of blood per day.