World Blood Donor Day
"Celebrating the gift of blood"
This annual event highlights the role blood donors play in saving the lives and improving the health of millions and creates awareness about the availability, safety and appropriate use of blood and blood products.
The clinical demand for blood is rising throughout the world to support advancements in medical and surgical procedures.
Though the pattern of blood usage varies in different countries, there is still a great need for it in the treatment of complications during pregnancy and childbirth and severe childhood anaemia.
Voluntary blood donors donate blood of their own free will for altruistic reasons and get no reward except personal satisfaction. Patients who receive this blood feel a sense of being cared for by others whom they will never meet. As national blood programmes move towards the goal of total voluntary donation, there is an increasing appreciation of these donors and their pivotal role in ensuring adequacy of safe blood. It is important that their contribution be recognised and valued by the community.
This year's theme is Giving Blood Regularly - an effort to commit volunteer blood donors to donate regularly and over long-term. This sense of social engagement and belonging displayed can be the foundation of a stable voluntary donor pool. It is an opportunity for every country to felicitate these givers of "life" and for national transfusion services to reaffirm their efforts in providing them quality care.
All about blood
Much like fingerprints our blood is unique to ourselves; only identical twins have exactly the same antigens in their blood. There are two main antigens that must be matched in any blood transfusion and these are identified under two different systems.
In 1900, Karl Landsteiner discovered that blood comes in four different groups, namely A, O, B and AB. Crucially each blood type has antibodies against other blood types so that blood type A will have antibodies against blood type B - thus giving the wrong type of blood can be fatal. Interestingly, O type blood has no antibodies against A or B making it a universal donor (type O blood can be used for patients with type A, B O or AB) but patients with type O blood can only receive type O blood.
Conversely people with type AB blood can receive blood from any donor but can only donate to AB patients, making this type the universal recipient.
The second main antigen is the Rhesus antigen; some of us have it and others don't. Thus if the Rh antigen is present in your blood you are RhD positive (RhD+) and RhD negative (RHd-) if it is not. This further complicates the matching process because recipients who are RhD- can only be given blood that is also RhD- but RhD+ patients can receive both negative and positive blood.
Blood can further be broken down into three main components:
• Red cells carry oxygen to the tissues using haemoglobin (commonly called iron). Red blood cells are often used to replace blood lost in surgery, haemorrhage and for patients undergoing chemotherapy.
• Platelets are tiny fragments of cells made in the bone marrow and which cause the blood to clot (i.e. it stops bleeding and bruising). Platelets are essential for leukaemia sufferers and can be given to patients who have suffered a great deal of blood loss due to surgery or injury.
• Plasma is the liquid that carries all our blood cells through the body and is needed for haemophiliacs, women who haemorrhage after childbirth, during cardiac surgery and after massive transfusions.
The clinical demand for blood is rising throughout the world to support advancements in medical and surgical procedures.
Though the pattern of blood usage varies in different countries, there is still a great need for it in the treatment of complications during pregnancy and childbirth and severe childhood anaemia.
Voluntary blood donors donate blood of their own free will for altruistic reasons and get no reward except personal satisfaction. Patients who receive this blood feel a sense of being cared for by others whom they will never meet. As national blood programmes move towards the goal of total voluntary donation, there is an increasing appreciation of these donors and their pivotal role in ensuring adequacy of safe blood. It is important that their contribution be recognised and valued by the community.
This year's theme is Giving Blood Regularly - an effort to commit volunteer blood donors to donate regularly and over long-term. This sense of social engagement and belonging displayed can be the foundation of a stable voluntary donor pool. It is an opportunity for every country to felicitate these givers of "life" and for national transfusion services to reaffirm their efforts in providing them quality care.
All about blood
Much like fingerprints our blood is unique to ourselves; only identical twins have exactly the same antigens in their blood. There are two main antigens that must be matched in any blood transfusion and these are identified under two different systems.
In 1900, Karl Landsteiner discovered that blood comes in four different groups, namely A, O, B and AB. Crucially each blood type has antibodies against other blood types so that blood type A will have antibodies against blood type B - thus giving the wrong type of blood can be fatal. Interestingly, O type blood has no antibodies against A or B making it a universal donor (type O blood can be used for patients with type A, B O or AB) but patients with type O blood can only receive type O blood.
Conversely people with type AB blood can receive blood from any donor but can only donate to AB patients, making this type the universal recipient.
The second main antigen is the Rhesus antigen; some of us have it and others don't. Thus if the Rh antigen is present in your blood you are RhD positive (RhD+) and RhD negative (RHd-) if it is not. This further complicates the matching process because recipients who are RhD- can only be given blood that is also RhD- but RhD+ patients can receive both negative and positive blood.
Blood can further be broken down into three main components:
• Red cells carry oxygen to the tissues using haemoglobin (commonly called iron). Red blood cells are often used to replace blood lost in surgery, haemorrhage and for patients undergoing chemotherapy.
• Platelets are tiny fragments of cells made in the bone marrow and which cause the blood to clot (i.e. it stops bleeding and bruising). Platelets are essential for leukaemia sufferers and can be given to patients who have suffered a great deal of blood loss due to surgery or injury.
• Plasma is the liquid that carries all our blood cells through the body and is needed for haemophiliacs, women who haemorrhage after childbirth, during cardiac surgery and after massive transfusions.