World Blood Donor Day: Theme, History, Significance, Activities in India & 10 Facts on Blood Donation

Nothing can be a greater act of humanity than donating blood. To honor this sense of humanity, June 14 is observed as World Blood Donor day every year. The day is commemorated by the World Health Organisation in collaboration with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Society, the International Federation of Blood Donor Organisation and the International society of Blood Transfusion.

 

This year the host of the World Blood Donor day is the city of Mexico where a global event will be organised at its National Blood centre on June 14, 2022.

World Blood Donor Day 2022

Theme of World Blood Donor Day 2022

Theme of 2022: "Donating blood is an act of solidarity. Join the effort and save lives."
The gist of the theme is towards a Noble cause to serve humanity. Blood donation isn't just an act of saving a life but it's also an effort towards solidarity of cultures and communities.

Importance of World Blood Donor Day

As a thanks giving gesture towards the volunteer blood donors, the world blood Donor day is observed to encourage people for regular blood donation to fulfil the need of blood and blood products by ensuring the quality, safety and availability for the patients in need.

In May 2005, during the 58th World Health Assembly, in the presence of Ministers of Health from all across the world, June 14, the Birth Anniversary of Karl Landsteiner was declared as the world blood Donor day. Karl Landsteiner was an Australian Biologist, physician and Immunologist who developed the Modern system of classification of Blood groups, risk less transfusion of blood and discovered the Polio virus in 1909. For his contributions in Medical science, he was honoured with the Nobel Prize in Physiology in 1930.

History of World Blood Donor Day

Although the blood donor day has been Celebrated since 2005, its history dates back hundreds of years. The history of Blood Transfusion starts with Richard Lower who was a British Physician who as an experiment successfully transfused the blood of a sheep into a human.

He was the first physician to perform successful blood donation and recorded his experiments in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society in 1667. He was the one who improved Harvey's theory of blood circulation and investigated why dark blood from a vein turns bright red when exposed to air.

After Richard it was Karl Landsteiner who further developed the Science of Blood with the discovery of ABO blood groups. Following the success of World Health Day, in 2005 14 June was declared as World Blood Donor Day globally.

Another effective step to ensure blood supply was taken On June 11, 2009 in the Melbourne Declaration to set up a goal for all countries to obtain adequate blood supplies from voluntary unpaid donors by 2020. In India, on December 6, 2013 a record breaking largest blood donation drive was held, in which 61,902 participants came forward to donate blood all willingly.

So basically on World Blood Donor day various campaigns are designed to support the efforts of National blood transfusion services, blood donor organisations, NGOs and Medical Professionals to save lives of millions.

World Blood Donor Day Activities in India

To fulfil the adequate need of blood, the Government is now encouraging citizens to participate in volunteer health check-up and blood donation drives. For this purpose the Union Health Secretary emphasised on commited, year-round and non-remunerative blood donation to ensure timely access of safe blood and resilient National blood system.
The ministry has also facilitated the check-up of collected blood sample for five Transfusion Transmissible infections (TTI) i.e. HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, Syphilis and Malaria using high quality testing methodology.

Along with pledge ceremonies on Block, Panchayat and District levels blood donation drives are being organised for which citizens can register themselves online. While registrations can be done on the CO-WIN portal, E-raktkosh will serve as the blood Centre/laboratory interface where all blood banks need to be registered. Also a blood donation certificate will also be given to the donor to encourage him for future participation in blood donation drives.

10 Facts on Blood Donation

Here We are presenting some important information regarding the actual scenario of health worldwide.

  • More than 1 million people are annually diagnosed with cancer for the first time. Sometimes they need blood everyday in the process of chemotherapy.
  • According to a medical survey more than 38,000 blood donations are required every day.
  • It takes our body 48 hours to regenerate plasma and up to 8 weeks to replace the red blood cells.
  • The O-negative blood group is rare.
  • In 2016, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India, reported a donation of 10.9 million blood units against a demand of 12 million units.
  • Blood related diseases are Thalassemia, Sickle cell Anaemia etc.
  • The annual need of Blood in India is around 1.45 crore units. It is collected through 3500 licensed blood banks in the country.
  • Around 112.5 million units of donated blood are collected globally every year.
  • The shelf- life of donated blood is around 35 to 42 days. That's why there is a constant need to replenish stocks in the blood banks.
  • Healthy donors fall in the age category of 18 to 65 years.
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