Importance of voluntary blood donation

Prof. (Dr.) Dharmakanta Kumbhakar

(drkdharmakanta1@gmail.com) 

Safe blood transfusion is a vital part of modern health care and often saves lives. Safe blood transfusion is indispensable during major surgeries; during treatment of trauma patients, cancer patients, pregnancy complications, anaemic women and children; and individuals suffering from sickle-cell anaemia, thalassaemia, haemophilia, etc. It improves life expectancy as well as the quality of life of those suffering from life-threatening diseases.

When bomb blasts, gunshots, road traffic accidents, natural calamities, etc. cause mass casualties, safe blood transfusion plays a vital role in the life-saving process. Patients who require blood as a part of their clinical management have the right to expect that sufficient safe blood will be available to meet their needs. The law protects safe blood transfusion, recognising its life-saving and fundamental nature.

For the transfusion of the safest blood in needy patients, it is globally accepted that the best source in this regard is voluntary blood donation, to be precise, voluntary blood donors. Voluntary donors donate blood of their own will and don’t receive any payment, either in cash or in any form that can be considered a substitute for money. The only reward they get is personal satisfaction and a boost to their self-esteem and pride.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends to its member states to develop national blood transfusion services based on voluntary, non-remunerated and regular blood donation in accordance with the World Health Assembly resolution adopted in 1975. The WHO’s goal was for all countries to obtain their blood supplies from voluntary donors by 2020. However, as of today, in just 62 countries blood supplies are based on 100 per cent voluntary blood donation, with 40 countries, including India, still dependent on family blood donors and even paid blood donors. Even after 49 years of the World Health Assembly resolution, the issues of blood safety, equitable access to safe blood and its components like plasma and platelets, and their safe and rational use are still major challenges in our country.

In India, safe blood and its components are constantly in high demand. Maintaining a constant reserve of safe and sufficient blood is a major challenge for most blood centres in our country. Usually, when a patient needs a blood transfusion in India, a replacement blood donor from his or her family or a friend must donate blood. In certain conditions, where blood transfusions are required intermittently, sometimes more than 100 units for a particular patient, how can the family or friends locate the required number of replacement blood donors? This gives rise to the involvement of professional or paid blood donors disguised as replacement blood donors.

Paid blood donors constitute a group with high-risk behaviour, leading to a greater chance of infections like HIV, HBV, HCV, syphilis, malaria, and others among recipients. The Indian Penal Code in Chapter XIV – Sections 269 and 270 – protects citizens against the spread of infectious diseases caused by negligent acts. The Supreme Court of India banned professional blood donation on January 1, 1998.

To ensure a safe and sustainable blood supply at the national level for those in need, healthy, voluntary donors must come forward to donate blood. A regular and steady flow of voluntary blood donors is essential to maintain sufficient blood stocks and ensure the delivery of safe blood in the right quantity at the right time. All we know is that, in spite of rapid and remarkable conquests of medical science today, no factory can manufacture blood or its components. It is only in human beings that human blood or its components are produced and circulated. For those who require blood to save lives, getting the same from other fellow humans is the only option. If just one per cent of the population of India, who are eligible for blood donation, donates blood voluntarily, then India can easily meet its basic requirements for blood. In India, any healthy person aged between 18 and 65 years and weighing more than 45 kg, having normal blood pressure and body temperature, and having a haemoglobin level of more than 12.0 gm/dL can usually donate blood, although some other limits may apply to donations of plasma and platelets.

For safety reasons, users of injectable drugs, carriers of transmissible diseases (HIV, HBV, HCV, syphilis, malaria, etc.), and recipients of organ transplants or recent blood transfusions can no longer be blood donors. As a rule, any healthy person can donate blood up to four times every year at an interval of three months. Plasma and platelets may be donated frequently.

For India, 100 per cent voluntary blood donation is not a magic figure. All eligible blood donors in the country should come forward for voluntary blood donation so that any patient who needs blood or blood components for transfusion can receive the required units from the blood centres without any replacement. The most valuable gift we can offer one another is blood and its components, which can save lives and provide a fresh start for many in need. There are many ways to be a better human being and serve mankind. Voluntary blood donation is among the best services that a man offers. Donating blood is noble work. If someone really loves fellow human beings, one way to express it is through voluntary blood donation.

All the eligible blood donors in the nation should come forward on World Blood Donor Day today and join in this heroic act of giving the precious gift of life.