Voluntary blood donations need of the hour

Islamabad : The World Blood Donor Day will be marked in the country today (Thursday) to pay tribute to the voluntary blood donors for saving millions of lives or improving the quality of people’s life.

Prof Hasan Abbas Zaheer, national coordinator at the Safe Blood Transfusion Programme, told ‘The News’ that the WBDD also served to encourage healthy people to come forward and donate blood voluntarily and on a regular basis.

“For the last many years, the day is celebrated widely in Pakistan by blood transfusion stakeholders with the increasing participation and collaboration of the World Health Organization,” he said.

Prof Hasan said every year the WHO identified a new theme for the WBDD celebrations.

“The theme for this year is “be there for someone else. Give blood. Share life”. It is meant to draw attention to the roles that voluntary donation systems play in encouraging people to care for one another and generate social ties and a united community,” he said.

The SBTP coordinator said as the country essentially relied on ‘family donors’ to sustain blood transfusion system, the promotion of voluntary blood donations was direly needed.

“Family donation is not a desirable option as it places unnecessary burden on the already distressed families of the patients and therefore, our reliance should be on voluntary, regular blood donors to improve blood safety standards and transform the demand-driven system into a supply-driven system like the countries, which have efficient and well-functioning blood systems,” he said.