By Dr Bardan Jung Rana, WHO Representative to Bangladesh
Blood is vital for treating the wounded during emergencies of all kinds (natural disasters, accidents, armed conflicts, etc.) and has an essential, life-saving role in maternal and neonatal care.
The World Health Assembly in 2005 designated a special day to acknowledge blood donors and motivate people to give blood voluntarily. Since then, World Blood Donor Day takes place every year on 14 June and main objective of the day to raise awareness about the global need for safe blood.
The campaign theme for this year’s World Blood Donor Day is “Safe blood saves lives” with the slogan “Give blood and make the world a healthier place”. This means each citizen who donates blood ultimately contribute to improve health for others in the community.
Most low- and middle-income countries struggle to make safe blood available because donations are low and equipment to test blood is scarce. Globally, 42% of blood is collected in high-income countries, which are home to only 16% of the world’s population.
WHO has launched the Action framework to advance universal access to safe, effective and quality assured blood products 2020-2023 (the document can be accessed through this link: https://www.who.int/bloodproducts/en/. Many activities have been listed in this document to improve blood services at central, regional or country level. In most of the developing countries volume of collected blood is less than volume required to meet the need of blood.
The COVID-19 virus outbreak is primarily transmitted by the respiratory route and theoretically by transfusions. The epidemic has the potential to reduce the supply of blood and blood components and adversely affect blood system activities. Blood services should therefore take steps to assess, plan, and respond appropriately and proportionately.
In Bangladesh blood transfusion services is embedded with district hospital to tertiary level of care. WHO has been supporting Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for improvement of quality blood screening through providing technical guidance and capacity building programme for blood transfusion staff and supporting quality-assured screening.
WHO is committed to further support the Government to enhance coordination and collaboration among the voluntary blood donor organizations and public sector to meet the country’s demand of blood supply, to provide safe blood and blood products, an essential element of every health care system.