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Students Donate Blood to Save Lives

Students Donate Blood to Save Lives

The South African National Blood Services (SANBS) has urged students at DUT to donate blood on a regular basis.

The SANBS recently visited the University’s City Campus where students donated life-saving blood to the organisation. The organisation conducts blood drives at universities every two months. The organisation uses Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing (NAT), a state-of-the-art testing technique, which screens every single unit of donated blood for transmissible infections such as HIV/AIDS, hepatitis and syphilils.

Muzi Hlengwa, a third-year Jewellery Design student, was one of the first students to donate blood. “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 medical technician at SANBS said only 1 percent of the South African population donates blood and as a result, 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,” she said.

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

– Sanelisiwe Mangxaba

Pictured: A DUT student donated blood to the South African National Blood Services (SANBS) during the organisation’s recent blood drive at the University.

*This edited article was published on www.journalismiziko.dut.ac.za

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