By Lerato Ndlovu
World Health Organization (WHO) will host virtual World Blood Donor Day commemorations this year.
The event will be held on the 14th of June in Rome, Italy.
This year’s World Blood Donor Day campaign theme is “Safe blood saves lives” with the slogan “Give blood and make the world a healthier place”.
In a communique WHO said the annual celebrations are a way of thanking voluntary blood donors and encourage more people to give blood freely.
Safe blood is critical for treatment and urgent interventions for patients suffering from life threatening conditions.
Due to scarcity of equipment to test blood and few donations low to middle income countries sometimes have insufficient blood in their banks.
High income countries contribute 42% of donated blood.
“WHO designated this day in 2005 to thank voluntary unpaid blood donors for the safe blood which they donate regularly and also raise awareness on the global need for safe blood whilst encouraging more people to give blood freely.
“Safe blood is critical both for treatments and urgent interventions, it can help patients suffering from life-threatening conditions live longer and with a higher quality of life and supports complex medical and surgical procedures and has an essential life-saving role in maternal and neonatal care.”
In Zimbabwe the National Blood Services Zimbabwe (NBSZ) was recently facing funding constraints and international travel restrictions as a result of the ongoing lockdown resulting in challenges to procure critical imported consumables such as test kits and blood bags.
NBSZ spokesperson, Esther Massundah recently said shortage of blood supply was not a result of lack of blood donors in the country but consumables that are required to conduct the blood drives.
“NBSZ wishes to put it on record that current blood shortages are not due to shortage of donors and thus we would like to sincerely thank our blood donors who have remained committed to donating blood during the lockdown period.
“We look forward to the continued support of our blood donors in ensuring that our blood banks become adequately stocked in order to avert any loss of life attributable to non-availability of blood supplies,” she said.
This year’s WBDD campaign aims at : celebrating and thanking individuals who donate blood and encourage more people to start donating; raise wider awareness of the urgent need to increase the availability of safe blood; demonstrate the need for universal access to safe blood transfusion and provide advocacy on its role in the provision of effective health care and in achieving universal health coverage; mobilize support at national, regional and global levels among governments and development partners to invest in, strengthen and sustain national blood programmes.
International organizations, including the World Health Organization, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the International Federation of Blood Donor Organizations and the International Society of Blood Transfusion, among others, continue to work in close collaboration to provide guidance and support to their membership in this endeavour.
