IN a parliamentary meeting early in the year, it was noted that in Africa, road traffic injuries are the fourth leading cause of death outside HIV and AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis.
According to United Nations (UN) statistics, by the year 2020, the worldwide fatalities from road crashes would have overtaken those from HIV and AIDS.
While researchers at a workshop last year noted that road accidents were slowly becoming the cause of death among the youth constituting 30 percent.
Statistics in the first half of the year indicated a total of 19 284 accidents, resulting in 785 people killed and 7 114 injured.
Yet according to the Blood Transfusion Services adolescents (16-20 years) contribute 70 percent of the total collections of blood nationwide.
It has been noted that adults are reluctant to donate their blood as transfusion will reveal their HIV status.
Last week the national blood authority stated that they were running out of blood units to cover the holiday season which often records the highest number of accidents thereby draining the blood bank.
Coincidentally the holiday season also means school breaks and since school children contribute the bulk of the blood that is collected, outreach programmes have been launched by the National Blood Transfusion Services of Zimbabwe (NBSZ) in the form of Youth Donor Days (YDDs).
In a report by the NBSZ, the country was left with only one blood group in their depleting stores.
From December 5 to January 11, the NBSZ has and will be collecting blood throughout the nation as it will be Youth Donor Month.
“This past weekend we had a target of at least 100 youths and we managed to surpass that collecting 1 288 units nationwide,” Ms Esther Masunda, the public relations manager for NBTS said.
She said alongside the YDDs, there would be ‘Pledge 25 galas’ running as well that will most likely boost blood reserves and meet demand.
Pledge 25 is a club for young and healthy citizens who pledge to regularly donate safe units of blood at least 25 times in their lives. 
The primary aim being to allow for smooth transition from school donors to safe adult donors thereby effortlessly creating a future pool of informed adult blood donors.
The launch of the Youth Donor Month also marked the 20th anniversary for the Pledge 25 Club.
Blood collections had been on a decline since 2005 and only began to improve in 2009.
There had been complaints that donated blood was expensive to which the organisation responded by saying production costs were US$135 per each unit of blood.
Despite setting up a Distress Fund to assist patients with no money to buy blood in 2012 which saw them hand over a US$25 000 voucher to the Ministry of Health and Child Care to assist those who cannot afford, the NBSZ has revealed that the fund had run out.
The focus of this year’s World Blood Donor Day campaign was ‘Safe blood for saving mothers’.
Every day, about 800 women die from pregnancy or childbirth-related complications.
Severe bleeding during delivery and after childbirth is a major cause of mortality, morbidity and long-term disability.
The goal of the campaign was to increase awareness about why timely access to safe blood and blood products is essential for all countries as part of a comprehensive approach to prevent maternal deaths.
Ms Masunda revealed that on Monday the NBSZ will be opening a new clinic at Joina City.