World Blood Donor Day observed in Accra
The outgoing Minister of Health, Ms Sherry Ayittey, has underscored the need to make safe blood available to help save the lives of patients, especially expectant mothers.
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Delivering the keynote address at this year’s World Blood Donor Day held in Accra, she said the “Ministry of Health is taking concrete steps towards ensuring that all health facilities improve access to safe blood from voluntary donors for transfusion”.
She indicated that although safe blood was one of the major solutions to birth-related complications, such as morbidity, mortality and long-term disability, access to safe and sufficient blood still remained a major challenge in many countries, including Ghana, and called on the National Blood Transfusion Services (NBTS) to intensify blood donation campaign to stock blood banks with safe blood.
World Blood Donor Day
The day is celebrated on June 14 annually, to raise awareness of the value of safe blood in saving lives and also to thank voluntary unpaid blood donors, for their contribution to saving the lives of patients.
This year’s celebration, which was on the theme: “Safe blood for safe motherhood”, is to draw attention of the public to the need for timely access to safe blood as part of a comprehensive approach to preventing maternal death.
The programme was used to honour some second-cycle institutions for continuously donating blood to save lives, especially those of mothers.
Ms Ayittey expressed worry over the inadequate blood supplies in the hospitals for transfusion, and called on Ghanaians to voluntarily donate blood to save the situation.
“It is significant to emphasise that for our blood banks to get enough blood stock, people like all of us witnessing today’s event need to show some care by actively being involved in blood donation. Once we do that, we will be able to meet the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) goal for all countries to obtain 100 per cent voluntary unpaid blood donor by 2020,” she added.
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She commended all voluntary blood donors in the country describing their gesture as a true generosity and patriotic.
Appeal for voluntary blood donation
The Director, National Blood Service, Ghana (NBSG), Dr Justina Kordai Ansah, said the day was instituted in 2005 in response to the chronic shortage of safe blood and blood products, particularly in low and middle-income countries.
According to her, the WHO had targeted the year 2020 for self-sufficiency by all countries. However, despite all effort by the NBSG to step up blood collection from voluntary sources, more was still needed to be done.
Dr Ansah noted that the blood collection statistics for 2013 revealed that family placement was 56 per cent, exceeding collection from voluntary unpaid sources, and appealed to the public and corporate institutions to take up blood donation as part of their corporate social responsibility to help achieve the set target even before the year 2020.