Regular blood donation have no adverse effect on health of an individual and one should regularly donate blood to save the lives of those who need it, said Uttarakhand Health inister Surendra Singh Negi while speaking at a felicitation ceremony organised by Uttarakhand AIDS Control Society on the occasion of National Voluntary Blood donation day here on Wednesday.
Appreciating the effort of USACS for improving the percentage of voluntary blood donation from 85 per cent to 91 percent of total blood collected in last two years the Health Minister said that efforts should be made to bring this to 100 per cent. Calling upon the younger generation to participate actively in voluntary blood donation he said since the donated blood is thoroughly tested for the infections and diseases like HIV the regular blood donors are relatively safe from diseases. Giving the example of a frequent blood donor Yogesh Agarwal who has donated blood 105 times till date Negi said that his sound physical health proves that the blood donation is good for health. He added that people like Agarwal are an example for the society and people should emulate him.
The additional project Director USACS Dr R K Pandey said that there are 26 licensed blood banks in the state out which 19 are under National AIDS Control Society (NACO). He said that the NACO has provided four blood donation vehicles and one blood mobile bus which are serving the purpose of voluntary blood donation and safe transfer of collected blood to the blood banks.
The joint director State blood collection council Dr H K Sandhu said since blood can not be synthetically created donation is the only method of collecting it for the needy.
The health minister felicitated 29 people on the occasion for exceptional contribution in the field of voluntary blood donations. A debate competition was also organised in which Neeraj Singh of Dev Bhoomi College was declared winner.
The theme of this year’s programe was “Give the gift of life- Donate blood”. The programe was also attended by Principal Secretary Health Om Prakash, Director General of Medical health Dr G S Joshi and Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Dehradun Dr SP Agarwal.