Voluntary donors in short supply

HYDERABAD: Though blood donation camps are organised frequently by college students and organisations and attempts to promote voluntary blood donations are always on, the situation has not improved much.World Health Organisation (WHO) has marked June 14 as the World Blood Donor Day. However, the number of voluntary blood donors in the country is far from encouraging.At the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) blood bank, most of the blood is collected through replacement donors, who are usually family or friends of the patient. “Replacement of blood taken from the blood bank is not a compulsion. The relatives and friends of the patients are usually requested to do so,” said Dr Sandip VS, professor and head of the Department of Transfusion Medicine at NIMS.As per the National Aids Control Program (NACP) phase-2 data, the percentage of voluntary blood donors per year was 50.5 percent, far less than the WHO target of 100 per cent collection through voluntary non-remunerated donors.“The number of donors has increased from 1,600 to nearly 20,000 over the past 20 years but it is not enough,” says Dr V Saraswathi, former assistant professor and head of Department of Transfusion Medicine at NIMS and former director of NTR Memorial Trust blood bank.Private blood banks face a similar situation, though some of them charge less for the blood units if replaced by the patients. E Nirmala, chairman of the Institute of Transfusion Medicine and Research at Banjara Hills says, “We see only about four to five voluntary donors coming in each day.”The need for blood units has increased and so has the need for voluntary donors. According to a WHO fact-sheet, if a mere 1 per cent of population donates blood, it would suffice for the entire population. The lack of awareness and multiple misconceptions regarding blood donation have only compounded the problem.