VOLUNTARY DONATION OF
BLOOD SHOULD BE PROMOTED – SHATRUGHAN SINHA
The country is observing
the National Day for Voluntary Blood Donation today. On the occasion,
Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare, Shri Shatrughan
Sinha said that we have to mobilise voluntary blood donation in
a big way and bring about a situation of total voluntary blood
donation in the country. India has reached 45% voluntary blood
donation which has to be strengthened. It is necessary that individuals
in the community realise that blood donation besides giving them
the satisfaction of saving the life of a fellow being is their
responsibility too, the Minister stated. The Minister was speaking
in a function organised by National AIDS Control Organisation
(NACO) & Indraprastha Apollo Hospital to mark the National
Day for Voluntary Blood Donation, here today.
The Minister told
that NACO has in the field of Blood Safety invested considerably
in infrastructure and presently is supporting about 1100 blood
banks in the country. These include 80 blood component separation
units which promote rational use of blood. Provisions have been
made for setting up a Government blood bank in any district of
the country which does not have a blood bank. Government has also
facilitated the establishment of blood storage centres in situations
like remote and rural areas where a full-fledged blood bank is
neither feasible nor required. The step is expected to be crucial
in providing blood to all who require it in the remotest parts
of the country. The emphasis now is on quality enhancement in
all areas of transfusion medicine and an accreditation system
to facilitate this will be in place. Till such time, that the
statement "there is no substitute for blood" remains
true, all of us will have to keep on innovating new strategies
to provide blood to all wherever and whenever required.
The Health Minister,
NCT, Delhi, Dr. Ashok Walia said that approximate 3 lakh units
of blood are required in Delhi of which only 25% comes from voluntary
blood donation. Since the professional blood donors are banned,
motivating people to come forward for blood donating is an important
task.
Applauding the contribution
of voluntary blood donors towards replenishing the stocks of blood
and blood components the P.D. NACO, Ms. Meenakshi Datta Ghosh
said that a single unit of blood donated can save the lives of
more than one person, because it can be separated into several
components (such as red cells, platelets and plasma) which then
can save the lives of many persons. NACO has plans to revitalize
the blood banking services, she stated.
