Blood donor day focuses on saving lives

ON Saturday, 14 June, countries around the world will celebrate World Blood Donor Day.

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

World Blood Donor Day also aims to create awareness about the need for availability and appropriate use of safe blood and blood products, and for more people to make a regular commitment to voluntary, unpaid blood donations.

This year’s campaign focuses on ‘safe blood for saving mothers’ to highlight the need for timely access to safe blood in the prevention of maternal deaths.

The South African National Blood Services (SANBS) has dedicated June to increasing awareness as to why timely access to safe blood is essential as part of a comprehensive approach to prevent 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 among the highest demand for blood daily in South Africa”, said Vanessa Raju, SANBS communication manager.

SANBS encourages people to donate blood regularly thank blood donors who sacrifice their time in an effort to save lives.

Established in 2004, World Blood Donor Day falls on the birthday of Karl Landsteiner. Landsteiner created the ABO blood group, which is used today to ensure the safety of blood transfusions. It is an annual event that is jointly sponsored by the World Health Organisation. It is one of eight official international public health campaigns marked by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The death of a woman from childbirth complications continues to be a serious global health challenge. Some 800 women die from pregnancy or childbirth-related complications daily. 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% of maternal deaths in Africa, 31% in Asia and 21% in Latin America and the Caribbean.

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.