Essay On Blood Donation

Human blood is valuable There is no replacement for it and there is no way to produce it outside the body. Yet, millions of times each year, human blood is required to save the lives of people suffering from disease or who are sufferers of accidents.[1]Access to secure, safe blood is an essential element and a cornerstone of an effective high quality health care and voluntary, non-remunerated donors are its basis. As voluntary donors are motivated by altruism rather than by financial or social pressure they are more likely to meet the criteria of safe donors, to disclose any possibility of risk exposure to donate blood regularly and at properly spaced intervals, however, many people are faced with ignorance, misconception, fears and myths

Screening procedures maximize safety of donation procedure for both the donor and the recipient[3]The satisfaction of donation is the joy of saving human life, free health checkup, and being screened for heart diseases, cancer, hepatitis and other serious illnesses that would lead to early diagnosis and prompt treatment and thereby reduces their risk. But many people are faced with ignorance, misconception, fears and myths about the donation process which results in a limited number of voluntary donors. Annual median blood donations seen in blood donation centres are 3100 for low and middle income countries in comparison with 15000 for high income countries. Annual requirement for Pakistan is 1.5 million bags approximately with 40% demand being supplied by the public sector. About 80% of private field blood donation takes place in big cities like Lahore and Karachi. The average donation rate in developed countries 45.4 for every 1000 individuals population in comparison with 10.1 per 1000 population in transitional countries and 3.6 donations in developing countries However, only 60% of the respondents in the study had actually donated voluntarily, while 93% had a negative attitude towards paid blood donation[4].