Prof Waqar Hussain,focal person of Blood Donation Society of Govt T.I.College.
               14th June has been celebrated as Blood Donor Day since 2005 with a purpose to ensure the availability of safe blood and blood products for transfusion and to thanks voluntary unpaid blood donor for their life saving gift.14th June is the birthday of Karl Landsteiner,the creator of blood group system in 1900.He was later awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1930.Although Jan Jansky had classified blood into four groups but Landsteiner's discovery  had been accepted by the world scientists and Jansky's work was obscured.However,Jansky's classification is still in use in Russia and States of former USSR.
      This year theme is ;"every blood donor is hero" and thus everyone can become hero by donation blood.He said that these silent heroes lives in the hearts of 6.9 billion people ; their faces are blossoming on the face of time.as their sacrifice is deeper than the Pacific and their humanity is higher than the Mount Everest.They deserve all the praise!
        Blood is required in thalassemia,sickle cell anemia, leukemia,surgery,etc.So the gift of blood is precious of all.Ther are about 92 million donor world wide; and most fall in the age bracket of 25 to 44 years.Even you can find elderly donor of 65 and above with contribution of 5%.  The developing countries are far ahead in donating blood while the developed are lagging behind like other domains.Today 57 countries have achieved 100% voluntary blood donation.
      In Pakistan one million bottles of blood are required annually.Every person with 12.5 haemoglobin level can donate blood to save three precious lives.But  only 1% people donate blood creating shortfall of annual demand to 3.2 million blood units.In ,the  donar contribution is just 20% against the projected goal of 100%  set by World Health Organization for the year 2020. In Pakistan blood donation trend is higher in urban area whereas, in villeges, many false myth are associated with blood donation.It is need of the hour to focus attention on rural area where 118.8 million(63%)population, out of total 177.1 million , resides.In villages people prefer to buy blood instead of getting donation.A politician of Jhang told me that once he got blood of a person of his constituency.Since then ,he reminds me that he donated blood whenever he meets me,and this donation came 10 years ago.The other major reason is the rumour that man becomes impotent on donating blood.So proper counseling is required in village area to remove these doubts and practice of boosting favour conferred.The act of donating blood is a healthy process with an additional advantage of getting screened by various costly tests.Helping other should be our motto to please God!


Thursday, June 14, 2012