Today is World Blood Donor Day

It is unfortunate that in our country over 12,000 persons die daily in accidents or during delivery because blood could not be transfused immediately despite easy availability at the regional or national level.

Blood and blood products are essential resources for women suffering from bleeding in pregnancy and childbirth, children rendered severely anaemic due to malaria and malnutrition, persons with disorders of blood or bone marrow, haemoglobin and immune system. Victims of emergencies, trauma, and accidents and those undergoing surgical procedures may direly need it. The need for blood is universal, but access to blood for all those who need it is not.

About 800 women die from pregnancy or childbirth-related complications every day all over the world. Most of these deaths occur in developing countries. The risk of maternal mortality is highest for adolescent girls under 15 years of age. Blood shortages are particularly acute in low- and middle-income countries. The issue of safety of blood is very important.

Every year just 1 per cent of eligible persons donate blood in India. The World Blood Donor Day on 14 June each year seeks to enhance awareness of the need for safe blood and blood products for transfusion, educate the lay people on the vital role of voluntary, unpaid blood donors in strengthening national health systems, and support country’s blood transfusion services, blood collection bodies and similar organisations by expanding blood donation programmes and campaigns.

This year’s slogan of the World Blood Donor Day is, ‘Donating blood is an act of solidarity. Join the effort and save lives’ giving’ draws attention to the seminal role voluntary blood donations play in saving lives and enhancing solidarity within communities.

Blood cannot be manufactured in vitro, so it has only to be retrieved from a donor. A major difficulty with blood is our inability to segregate the components of blood since the patient may require only one of its components. Then, there are several taboos; blood or organ donation is just not acceptable to certain mindsets.

Blood donors are mostly student groups; others in the society also need to come to the fore. Worldwide, developing countries suffer from blood shortages. India has a shortage of 41 million units.

To build a sound structure for collection, storage and supply of safe blood to the needy, the National Organ & Tissue Transplant Organisation website (www.notto.nic.in) provides updated information and online facility for registering pledges for organ donation.

There are certain visceral fears and myths: blood donation can impinge upon health or cause blood deficit in the body; it can lead to infections; one with diabetes, blood pressure, etc., or the elderly must avoid it. In reality, blood donation prevents accumulation of excess iron from the body, thus reducing the possibility of developing cardiovascular diseases.

The human body has on average 5-6 litres of blood and formation of new blood is an ongoing process so that at any point of time around one-tenth of it (350-450 ml) can always be spared. The quantum of blood donated quantitatively restores to normal level within 48 hours. Any healthy individual can donate blood four times a year within an interval of three months. After blood donation one can immediately resume work, the only advice is, (i) take 10 -12 glasses of water within 24 hours, (ii) avoid driving, excessive exposure to smoking or sun for three to four hours, and (iii) avoid alcohol for a couple of days.

All religions and faiths proclaim the act of giving as one of the greatest virtues, many faiths endorse blood donation as a noble deed. The Hindu call it the greatest gift (Rakt daan mahadan); among Christians organ and tissue donations are ethically acceptable as expressions of love, charity. Let each of us contribute to the noble cause of donating blood.

(The writer is a blogger and senior journalist. The view expressed are personal.)