As World Blood Donor Day is marked globally today, the need has been stressed for citizens to always be willing to donate blood as their contribution towards building an efficient health system.
World Blood Donor Day is marked globally every 14th June, to raise awareness on the need for safe blood and blood products and to thank voluntary, unpaid blood donors for their life-saving gifts of blood.
The 2022 World Blood Donor Day has as its theme, “Donating blood is an act of solidarity: Join the effort and save lives.”
Speaking on the significance of the celebration, a Obstetrician-Gynaecologist, Dr Joe Akabuike said the most important thing about the celebration is the awareness that blood can save lives and the need for people to always be willing to donate blood.
According to him, so many illnesses and accidents may make people have sudden shortage of blood, adding that lack of access to blood may lead to loss of lives.
“The most important thing about this celebration is the awareness that blood can save people’s lives and also that there should be willingness to save lives through donating of blood. It is an act of humanity,” he said.
Dr Akabuike identified as part of challenges facing effective blood transfusion in Nigeria to include people’s unwillingness to donate blood as well as religious and cultural beliefs that make patients refuse blood transfusion.
“Most often, patients’ relatives are encouraged to donate blood but they refuse, asking us to go and buy.
“Sometimes people are in need of blood and they have neither money nor persons to donate to them.
“It is also worrisome that some people can be in critical situations such as post-partum haemorrhage and partum haemorrhage and refuse to take blood.
“These are challenges that we face in doing blood service but through events like this, we get to sensitize the people that we can actually do better and strengthen this blood service, to complement efforts at building a better and more efficient health system in Nigeria,” he said.
The medical expert also spoke on the gains of donating blood for the donor.
“There is no blood cell that lasts more than 120 days that is an average of 3 months.
“So as one is donating blood, as long as the marrow is working, it will be producing fresh blood.
“If you don’t have problem with your internal blood producing systems, you will hardly have anaemia.
“When you donate, your body reproduces and you have fresher blood.
“There are also people who have excess Red Blood Cells and this is not good for the heart. These are people having an upward of 120 percent and that is not good.
“If they are not careful to let the blood off their system, the blood has the tendency to congeal and form clots that can kill the person,” Akabuike said.
