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World Blood Donor Day - “Give blood, give plasma, share life, share often”.

  • Writer: Polelo Mawela
    Polelo Mawela
  • Jun 14, 2023
  • 4 min read

Blood is necessary for maintaining human existence. People who have been in car accidents, experienced trauma, had difficult pregnancies, have cancer, or are undergoing major procedures depend on its safe supply on a regular basis (Duh & Dabula, 2021). The donation of blood is essential to ensuring that healthcare is delivered optimally for those in need of blood. In many countries, blood services face the challenge of making sufficient blood available, while also ensuring its quality and safety (WHO, 2023).

Lack access to safe blood and blood products – especially in low- and middle-income countries, impacts on all patients, including those requiring regular transfusion (WHO, 2023). In South Africa, less than 1% of the population are active blood donors (SANBS, 2023). Most (28%) of the blood donated in South Africa is used for patients with chronic illnesses. This is followed by women who bleed excessively during or after childbirth as well as for premature babies accounting for 26% of blood donated. Surgery takes up 26% of the blood donated, 10% is used for sick children, 6% for research purposes and 4% for accident victims (SANBS, 2022).

The demand for blood is high however; the number of viable donors remains low (Duh & Dabula, 2021). The high prevalence of HIV in South Africa is one of the challenges to viable blood donation (Van de Berg at al., 2021). Other challenges include misconceptions about blood donation, fear of needles and fear of contracting diseases (Duh & Dabula, 2021). Other blood donation deterrents are fear, pain from the needle insertion, reluctance, anaemia, and customs. To dispel these negative perceptions and beliefs and build positive attitudes, there is need for public education on the safety, ease and importance of donating blood (Duh & Dabula, 2021). To educate the public, the South African National Blood Service (SANBS) utilizes mass media including television, radio, billboard advertisement, newspaper, web blogging, social media and mobile communication. The main goals are to create awareness of the clinical need for blood donation, build positive perceptions, attitudes and ultimately, motivate the public to donate blood (SANBS, 2022). From their social marketing efforts, SANBS expects at least one million blood donations every year in South Africa in order to save lives.


The theme for 2023 World Blood Donor day is “Give blood, give plasma, share life, share often” of which theobjectives are to:

  • Celebrate and thank individuals who donate blood and encourage more people to become new donors;

  • Encourage people in good health to donate blood regularly, as often as is safe and possible, to transform the quality of life for transfusion dependent patients and help to build a secure blood supply in all countries in the world;

  • Highlight the critical roles of voluntary non-remunerated regular blood and plasma donations in achieving universal access to safe blood products for all populations; and

  • Mobilize support at national, regional and global levels among governments and development partners to invest in, strengthen and sustain national blood programmes (WHO, 2023).

Increasing blood donations from the black African demographic was a challenge due to the historical discrimination as well as the higher prevalence of HIV in black Africans in South Africa (Vermulen et al., 2019). Blood services separated the blood supply by race during the apartheid era. In the early 1990s, as apartheid drew to a close, the blood services moved toward greater racial integration of donation and transfusion (Avera, 2023). However, this period was concurrent with the HIV epidemic. Higher HIV prevalence in black populations paralleled apartheid inequalities. SANBS’s strategy to manage the risks of transmitting HIV to patients through transfusion reflected these epidemiological statistics, and involved the racial stratification of donors. Public challenges to this strategy, and changes in infections testing led SANBS to eliminate racial risk profiling in 2005 and attempt to change donor demographics (Avera, 2005; Vermulen et al., 2019). As such, there was a substantial increase in black blood donors in South Africa from 2005 to 2015 (Vermulen, 2019).

SANBS has managed to donate 16.5 units of blood in 21 years. One unit of blood saves up to 3 lives. The goal of SANBS is to collect 3 000 units of blood a day (SANBS, 2022). Although blood donation is not at the desired level, it has increased over time and the efforts made by the SANBS have proven to be effective.

Reference

Avera, E. (2023). “Blood Has No Colour”: Racialized Donor In/Ex-clusion in the South African National Blood Service. Medical Anthropology, 42(3), 207-221.

Duh, H. I., & Dabula, N. (2021). Millennials’ socio-psychology and blood donation intention developed from social media communications: A survey of university students. Telematics and Informatics, 58, 101534.

SANBS (2022). 2022 Annual Report. www.sanbs.org.za

Van den Berg, K., Vermeulen, M., Louw, V. J., Murphy, E. L., & Maartens, G. (2021). Undisclosed HIV status and antiretroviral therapy use among South African blood donors. Transfusion, 61(8), 2392-2400.

Vermeulen, M., Lelie, N., Coleman, C., Sykes, W., Jacobs, G., Swanevelder, R., ... & Reddy, R. (2019). Assessment of HIV transfusion transmission risk in South Africa: a 10‐year analysis following implementation of individual donation nucleic acid amplification technology testing and donor demographics eligibility changes. Transfusion, 59(1), 267-276.

WHO (2023). World Blood Donor Day 2023: Give blood, give plasma, share life, share often. www.who.int





 
 
 

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