World Blood Donor Day - 2011

Dr Y Bijoy Kumar *

Rally organised in connection with the World Blood Donors' Day on June 14 2011 - Pix: TSE

World Blood Donor Day is being observed globally on 14th June, since 2004. This day is the birthday of Dr. Karl Lansteiner, who discovered the 'ABO' blood group system, and with this discovery the modern blood transfusion has become easier and reliable source of health care system. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for his discovery.

The observation of World Blood Donor Day is supported by four international organisations on blood safety ie World Health Organization (WHO), International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, International Federation of Blood Donor Organization & International Society Of Blood Transfusion. These organisations have been organising this day in various countries every year since 2004, with different themes

Viz,

2004 – Johannesburg – Special focus on youth
2005 – London – Recipients/patients express their thanks
2006 – Thailand – Community participation: commitment and partnerships
2007 – Philippines – Safe blood for safe motherhood
2008 – Dubai – Giving blood regularly, for safe and sustainable blood supplies
2009 – Australia – Self sufficiency through voluntary plasma donation
2010 – Barcelona – New blood for the world

And this year (2011) it will be held at Argentina, with the theme "More Blood, more life".

The idea of observing world blood donor day is for many reasons.

- It gives an opportunity to express gratitude to those who donate blood to save lives, without expecting anything in return, but only with the intention that his or her blood will save somebody.
- This day also highlights the need to donate blood voluntarily to prevent shortage of blood and its components in blood centres.
- Without blood donors, blood banks/centres will cease to exist and there will be no blood at disposal to save lives.

The transfusion of blood and its components is vital in a health care system. But, this vital fluid called 'blood' cannot be manufactured in factories, someone has to donate.

Transfusion of blood and its components is needed in cases of major surgical operations, vehicular accidents, mass casualty like in case of bomb blasts, gynaecological bleedings, cancer patients, patients undergoing dialysis, blood related diseases like leukaemia, thalassemia, haemophilia, etc, to name a few. If our blood banks/centres do not have enough blood in stock, we will not be able to save the precious lives. But, it is well known that there is a big gap between the demand and supply, the demand is always more.

This precious gift called 'blood' also carries the very high risk of transmitting diseases. In a blood centre/bank, every unit of blood is tested for five disease markers, before transfusion ie Human Immunodeficiency Virus, Hepatitis-B, Hepatitis-C, Syphilis, and malaria. If any one of these markers is found positive, the blood unit will be discarded. But, even when the five disease markers are found negative tested by the most sensitive techniques, it may not be 100% safe. There is a certain period of the disease process where we cannot detect the disease even by the most sensitive techniques.

The aim of the blood bank/centre is to give the safest blood or its components at the right time and in right quantity to the needy patients. To achieve this goal it is globally accepted that the blood units collected must be from the voluntary non-remunerated donors and preferably from repeated regular voluntary non-remunerated donors as their blood is tested for every donation and found negative of the five markers, time and again. So, there may not be much concern for window period of the disease.

Therefore, it is our aim to achieve 100% voluntary blood donation ie all the blood in stock is from a voluntary source. But to achieve this only the staffs of the blood centre cannot do much, without the cooperation and support from all sections of society.

Tripura, which is one of the States of the 'Seven Sisters' NE States has the highest percentage of voluntary donors at a whopping 95% and, Manipur lags far behind it, and even so when compared to other States in the country, which also have a long way to go. Hence, a lot of effort, cooperation and direct support from the people of all sections of society remain the need of the hour.

So, the 'World Blood Donor Day' 14th June 2011 is on our way with the theme "More blood, more life". On this day we have an opportunity to express our gratitude to those who donate blood voluntarily and to give a message to those who donate blood as a replacement donors for their relatives, to become a voluntary donor and to all the people between 18 years to 60 years to donate blood because someone is counting on your precious gift to have a chance for survival.

And to conclude with a hard fact, "Mother's tears cannot save her child but your blood can".