This years World Blood Donor's Day on June 14 is a little special. It is the 10th anniversary of WBDD. Let's take a moment to express our heartfelt gratitude to each and every blood donor. It is because of these heroes, that we believe life will be given a better chance. Thank You Dear Blood Donors!.
For the last 10 years, nations across the world have been using various mechanisms to reach out to people with inspiring and educative messages on this day. The theme chosen for this year by the World Health Organisation is "Give the gift of life: donate blood". WHO claims that the focal message to propagate this year is the value of donated blood to the patient, not only in saving life, but also in helping people live longer and more productive lives.
This year, apart from having the normal celebrations and campaigns to reach out to donors, WHO has also issued an appeal to all countries: To obtain 100% of their supplies of blood and blood products from voluntary unpaid blood donors by 2020. Currently, 60 countries collect 100% of their blood supply from voluntary unpaid blood donors (35 are high-income countries, 18 middle-income countries and 7 low-income countries). Six of these countries have achieved this target from a percentage lower than 75% reported in 2004: Cook Islands (from 40%), Kenya (from 53%), Nicaragua (from 41%), Turkey (from 40%), United Arab Emirates (from 59%) and Zambia (from 72%).However, more progress is needed, with 73 countries still collecting more than 50% of their blood supply from replacement or paid donors. (all statistics and data taken from the WHO website).
The Indian scenario: Having worked for 10 years in the field of blood banking, we at Sankalp have realised that much needs to be done in our country for us to reach close to the 100% voluntary blood donation index. We believe there are 2 big hurdles.
First is the seasonal blood shortage, where blood donation drives are planned by many institutions only on some specific dates of the year. We at Sankalp, are striving hard to bring a change to the seasonal blood supply variations. Although much needs to be done in terms of changing the trend for the entire state, a noteworthy change has been brought about in the Bangalore situation. This quarter alone (Apr 1 - June 10), close to 3000 units of blood have been collected. In years to come, with the support and efforts of the blood banks and most importantly the voluntary blood donor heroes, we believe that this can be changed. On this WBDD, we wish to make a renewed commitment to push for better quality standards in every blood donation drive, for every blood donation. We wish to bring in more regular, voluntary blood donors for life.
Second and perhaps the biggest hurdle is the mindset of certain blood banks to work on an all out replacement policy, viz, Give Blood & Take Blood. There have been endless debates as to whether a replacement donation is voluntary or not, required or not. What loses focus in such debates is the safety and quality of collected blood. WHO in it's blood policy claims "Providing safe and adequate supplies of blood and blood products should be an integral part of every country's national health care policy and infrastructure". By pushing for replacement donations, is this not taking a beating? Many institutions are quite averse to the idea of coming outside their campus for voluntary blood donation drives. They claim that it is an overhead. We wish to say that in 6 years, Sankalp has worked to collect more than 35,000 units of blood in voluntary blood donation drives. Where there is a will, there certainly is a way. On this day we make an appeal to Blood Banks and Hospitals, to root out replacement donations. Let's work for more voluntary blood donation drives together.
Let's celebrate the true spirit of WBDD by celebrating Voluntary Blood Donation. By the next WBDD, lets hope lesser number of replacement blood donors have donated.
Lets hope, the unknown, selfless voluntary blood donor is the only hero!!