The World Health Assembly, during its session in May, issued a resolution establishing World Blood Donor Day on 14 June. This day will be celebrated every year to honour and thank those people who donate their blood, the most precious gift of all, of their own free will, and to create awareness on the importance of voluntary unpaid blood donation.
In 1975, the Twenty-eighth World Health Assembly recognized the value of voluntary blood donation by its resolution WHA28.72, calling on Member States to promote national blood transfusion services based on voluntary unpaid donations and to pass laws to govern their operations. The theme of World Health Day 2000 was “Blood Safety”. That year saw the birth of many initiatives aimed at improving the safety and availability of blood, including the WHO quality management project. In 2001, the Blood Safety Strategy for the African Region was adopted. One of the objectives was to assist countries to set up effective systems of recruitment of low-risk blood donors. One target was to have at least 80% of blood donations in Member States be voluntary and unpaid by the end of 2012.
Transfusion of blood and blood products saves millions of lives each year. In most developing countries, however, preventable deaths still occur due to inadequate supply of safe blood and blood products. Most of this burden falls on women and children as a consequence of pregnancy-related complications, malnutrition, malaria and other infectious diseases. Trauma, including road traffic accidents, and injuries due to armed conflicts increase the demand for blood.
Despite its vital role in saving life, blood transfusion may expose the recipient to a number of adverse effects which can be life-threatening. These include the transmission of infections such as HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B and hepatitis C which are of immense public health importance due to their high prevalence in the African Region.
Collecting blood by voluntary unpaid donations through well-organized donor recruitment systems has been shown to be safer, more effective and more efficient than hospital-based family or replacement donations. In 2001, the WHO Global Database on Blood Safety showed that only 33% of the blood collected was from low- and medium-income countries where 82% of the world’s population lives. Also, 95% of blood donations in high-income countries are voluntary and unpaid, compared to only 25% in low-income countries.
The same picture is reflected in blood safety data in the African Region where most of the countries still collect more than 50% of donations from family or replacement donors. Only 10 out of the 46 countries collect all blood from voluntary unpaid donors. In countries with well-organized blood donor systems, such as Cote d’Ivoire, South Africa and Zimbabwe, the HIV prevalence among blood donors has been shown to be very low, less than 1%, compared to that of the general population which ranges from 5% to 35%. It is my hope that more countries in our Region will aspire to achieve such results.
The challenges to safe and accessible blood include the identification, recruitment and retention of voluntary donors; proper screening of blood for all major transfusion transmissible infections; implementation of quality management systems in blood transfusion services; and ensuring the proper clinical use of blood.
Commendable efforts and progress have been made during the past five years to improve the safety of blood. After the adoption of the Regional Strategy, many countries, with the support of the Regional Office, embarked on activities such as the development of national policies and plans, training of quality managers, implementation of quality management programmes, and development of material to sensitize the general population about voluntary blood donation. To date, 40 countries have developed national blood policies, though the implementation rate has been slow.
As I have said on previous occasions, “The Regional Office will focus its actions on a few priorities and proven cost-effective interventions that make the most impact on the lives of our people”. Blood safety is an area where we can make a difference. A well-organized and coordinated national blood transfusion service based on voluntary unpaid blood donations and supported by effective quality management programmes can efficiently prevent the transmission of HIV/AIDS and other blood-borne diseases and save lives of millions of people, particularly vulnerable groups such as mothers and children.
I call upon all national health authorities to take advantage of this day to strengthen donor recruitment activities by encouraging community participation and ownership of the blood donor component of blood transfusion services.
I would also like to use this opportunity to thank all who have donated and continue to donate blood, the gift of life. I congratulate and express my support to blood donor associations and to all those who are working to make safe blood available in health-care settings. The Regional Office shall continue to work with other partners to implement policies and develop new strategies that will enable Member States to recruit more safe and voluntary blood donors. Let us combine our efforts to provide safe blood to our patients and give joy to those who need blood for survival.