Importance of voluntary blood donation

Prof. (Dr.) Dharmakanta Kumbhakar

(The writer can be reached at drkdharmakanta@yahoo.com)

Safe transfusion of blood and its components is an important part of the modern healthcare system, and most of the time, it proves to be a life-saving one. Safe blood transfusion is indispensible in times of major surgeries, during treatment of trauma patients, cancer patients, pregnancy complications, anaemic women and children, and persons suffering from sickle-cell anaemia, thalassaemia, haemophilia, etc. It improves life expectancy as well as the quality of life of those suffering from life-threatening diseases.

When bomb blasts, gunshots, road traffic accidents, natural calamities, etc. cause mass casualties, safe blood transfusion plays a vital role in the life-saving process. Patients who require blood or its as a part of their clinical management have the right to expect that sufficient safe blood will be available to meet their needs. Safe blood transfusion comes under legal protection also, as it is both life-saving and fundamental.

For transfusion of the safest blood in needy patients, it is globally accepted that the best source in this regard is voluntary blood donation, to be precise, voluntary blood donors. Voluntary donors donate blood of their own will and don’t receive any payment, either in the form of cash or anything that can be considered as a substitute for money. The only reward they get is personal satisfaction, and a boost to their self-esteem and pride.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends to its member states to develop national blood transfusion services based on voluntary, non-remunerated, and regular blood donation in accordance with the World Health Assembly resolution adopted in 1975. The WHO’s goal was for all countries to obtain their blood supplies from voluntary donors by 2020. However, as of today, in just 62 countries, blood supplies are based on 100 percent voluntary blood donation, with 40 countries, including India, still dependent on family blood donors and even paid blood donors. Even after 49 years of the World Health Assembly resolution, the issue of blood safety, equitable access to safe blood and its components like plasma and platelets, and their safe and rational use are still major challenges in our country. 

In India, safe blood and its components are constantly in high demand. Maintaining a constant reserve of safe and sufficient blood is a big challenge for most of the blood centres in our country. Most of the time, when a patient needs blood transfusion in India, a replacement blood donor from his/her family or a friend needs to donate blood. In certain conditions, where blood transfusion is required intermittently, sometimes more than 100 units for a particular patient, then how can the family or friends find the required number of replacement blood donors? This gives rise to the involvement of professional or paid blood donors disguised as replacement blood donors.

Paid blood donors constitute a group with high-risk behaviour, leading to greater chances of infections like HIV, HBV, HCV, syphilis, malaria, etc., in the recipients. The Indian Panel Code in Chapter XIV—sections 269 and 270—protects citizens against the spread of infectious diseases due to negligent acts. The Supreme Court of India banned professional blood donation on January 1, 1998.

To ensure a safe and sustainable blood supply at the national level for those in need, healthy voluntary donors must come forward for blood donation. Without a regular, steady flow of voluntary blood donors to keep the blood stocks sufficient, the delivery of safe blood in the right quantity at the right time can never be ensured. All we know is that, in spite of rapid and remarkable conquests of medical science today, no factory can manufacture blood or its components. It is only in human beings that human blood or its components are produced and circulated. For those who require blood to save lives, getting the same from other fellow humans is the only option. If just one percent of the population of India who are eligible for blood donation donates blood voluntarily, then India can easily meet its basic requirements for blood. In India, any healthy person aged between 18 and 65 years and weighing more than 45 kg, having normal blood pressure and body temperature, and a haemoglobin level of more than 12.0 gm/dL, can usually donate blood, although some other limits may apply to donations of plasma and platelets.

For safety reasons, users of injectable drugs, carriers of transmissible diseases (HIV, HBV, HCV, syphilis, malaria, etc.), and recipients of organ transplants or recent blood transfusions can no longer be blood donors. As a rule, any healthy person can donate blood up to four times every year at an interval of three months. Plasma and platelets may be donated frequently.

For India, 100 percent voluntary blood donation is not a magic figure. All the eligible blood donors in the country should come forward for voluntary blood donation so that any patient who needs blood or blood components for transfusion can get the required units from the blood centres without any replacement. The most precious gift that we humans can give each other is blood and its components, a gift that can save lives and give a new lease of life to many people in need.

There are many ways to be a better human being and serve mankind. Voluntary blood donation is among the best services that a man offers. Donating blood is a noble work. If someone really loves fellow human beings, one way to express it is through voluntary blood donation.

All the eligible blood donors in the nation should come forward on National Voluntary Blood Donation Day today and join in this heroic act of giving the precious gift of life.