Give blood for those who give life

This raises awareness of the need for safe, good quality blood and blood products, and honours the many voluntary, unpaid blood donors for their life-saving gifts of blood.

World Blood Donor Day has a further purpose — to create widespread awareness throughout the world about the need for availability and appropriate use of safe blood and blood products, and the need for many more people to make a commitment to regular, voluntary, unpaid blood donation.

Established in 2004, World Blood Donor Day falls on the birthday of Karl Landsteiner.

Landsteiner discovered the ABO blood group system, which is used today to ensure safety of blood transfusions.

World Blood Donor Day is an annual event that is jointly sponsored by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

It is one of eight official international public health campaigns marked by the WHO.

This year’s campaign, “Safe Blood for Saving Mothers”, is to develop a strategy to highlight the need for timely access to safe blood in the prevention of maternal deaths.

The death of a woman from complications during childbirth continues to be a serious, global health challenge.

Approximately 800 women die from pregnancy or childbirth-related complications daily and just about all of these deaths occur in developing countries.

More than half of them take place in sub-Saharan Africa, and almost one third in South Asia.

The risk of maternal mortality is highest for adolescent girls under 15 years of age.

Severe bleeding during delivery and after childbirth is a major cause of death, illness and long-term disability.

Largely, it is the most common cause of maternal mortality and contributes to around 34 per cent of maternal deaths in Africa, 31 per cent in Asia and 21 per cent in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The South African National Blood Service (SANBS) has dedicated the entire month of June to increase awareness regarding the critical need for timely access to safe blood, as part of a comprehensive approach to preventing maternal deaths.

Blood transfusion has been identified as one of the nine key life-saving interventions for the management of pregnancy-related complications.

“Childbirth and other gynaecological complications are amongst the highest demand for blood daily in South Africa,” said Vanessa Raju, SANBS communication manager.

SANBS encourages people to donate blood regularly and would like to thank the blood donors who sacrifice their time in an effort to save lives of people in need of blood. Get involved. Give blood and participate in local events being organised to celebrate Blood Donor Month.

For more information visit www.SANBS.org.za or call 0800 11 90 31.