Lower your chances of hypertension & heart attacks – Donate Blood.

Mahesh Dhoundiyal - Delhi

• Regular Blood donors have less heart attacks.
• National Voluntary Blood Donation Day Celebrated.
• India far away from 100% voluntary blood donation.
• India has shortage of 1 million units of BLOOD.
• Donate blood, live long.
• Every two seconds, someone in India needs blood.

Blood is most important organ of the body. Every organ needs an adequate quantity of safe blood to function. Blood is not manufactured in factories, nor available from mines or plants. Animal blood cannot be used for human beings. Some human being has to give blood to let other human live who is in need of blood.

October 1st is observed as National Voluntary Blood Day. National Thalassemia Welfare Society (NTWS) and Federation of Blood Donor Organizations of India (FBDOI) organized a National Workshop and Award Function at Constitution club New Delhi on this day. Around 150 stakeholders dedicated to voluntary blood donation including blood donors, blood donor organizations, clinicians and blood bank officers had a full day brain storming session to discuss strategies to achieve the target of 100% voluntary non-remunerative blood donation and overcome shortage of safe blood.  

The workshop was inaugurated by Mr Hansraj Ahir chairperson National Commission for Backward Classes & former Minister of state for home affairs. In his address he said that "The greatest gift that we as an individual can give another person is the gift of blood. There is a continuous shortage of blood in blood banks all over the country”. 

Dr J S Arora general secretary of the National Thalassemia Welfare Society said “Blood is regularly required by persons suffering from blood disorders like thalassemia, sickle cell, hemophilia and aplastic anemia or in emergencies like trauma, surgeries, delivery or bleeding conditions”.

 “Donated blood is separated in three parts – Red Blood Cells, Plasma and Platelets thus saving three lives from every unit of donated blood” added Dr Arora. Every two seconds, someone in India needs blood and one out of every three of us will need blood in our lifetime. 

Blood donation doesn’t cause weakness. Anyone from the age of 18 to 60 years with hemoglobin level of above 12.5gm and weight over 45 Kg can donate blood every three months. Regular donors can donate upto 65 years of age. Plasma volume is recovered within 24 - 48 hours, red blood cells in about 3 weeks and platelets & white blood cells within minutes. It is unfortunate to note that 85.5% of Indian youth aged 18–25 have never donated blood.

"India needs 14·6 million units of blood which remains unmet; leading to huge supply gap of 1 million units. Donating blood selflessly for the sake of humanity is referred to as voluntary blood donation. 100% voluntary donations can enhance blood safety in India, but currently, only 70% of the blood donated is on a voluntary basis and 30% is still replacement blood”. Said Mr Apurba Ghosh secretary general of FBDOI Dr Arora said blood donation is beneficial for the donors also. Regular blood donation lower risk for heart attacks and also stimulates formation of fresh blood cells”.

Mrs. Vinita Srivastava NHA MoHFW said that an e-Rakt Kosh, a Centralized Blood Bank Management Information System has been developed as a comprehensive IT solution for streamlining the workflow of blood banks across the country. This web based mechanism inter-connects all the Blood Banks of the State into a single network and provides key information regarding availability of blood by type, location of Blood Banks, etc.

“Since donors blood is screened for hemoglobin and STDs, underlying anemia and certain blood infections can also be diagnosed in the donor incidentally" added Dr Sangeeta Pathak president of FBDOI. Dr Swaran Anil vice-president NTWS in her address said blood donation gives a sense of wellbeing to the donor for having done community service and done their role in saving someone’s life.

Young regular blood donors and blood donor organizations were awarded to recognize, appreciate and encourage their motivation so that our blood banks have enough safe blood 24x7x365.