Seye Joseph
According to American Blood Centre – America’s Blood Center that works with donors, hospitals and member blood centers said in one of its researches that fifty percent of the United State population is eligible to donate blood, yet only five percent (5%) of those eligible actually donate blood.
With this statistics, Doctor Oladapo Aworanti, a Senior Registrar at the Department of Hematology and Blood Transfusion at University College Hospital, Ibadan has also mentioned most people who don’t donate blood in Nigeria give reason of not having money and the state of the economy does not allow them to do so.
In his explanation, he said that the situation of the country does not mean that people cannot donate blood at any time they want to do so as the state of the country does not make them not to have enough blood they can donate.
Aworanti was concerned on the rate of voluntary donor that is reducing on daily basis, “the rate at which we have voluntary donor is much more reducing compare to what is obtainable in other part of the world.”
According to him “What we do in here in Nigeria is replacement donor. When you are sick your relative will come to donate a pint of blood” and some people still pay donor to donate blood for them.”
When asked if people still get paid when they want to donate blood, he also said that UCH does not encourage such act.
“Such donor is exposed to all sorts of infections and there is possibility for them to donate more than what it is expected in a particular year since they will be paid for it as they can’t donate more than 3 times in a year.
Aworanti said that voluntary blood donors are entitled to free blood when they have their card. “There is also series of test that is routinely done for them, people pay for all these but because they are regular donor, it is free for them.”
Every 14 of June, countries around the world celebrate World Blood Donor Day (WBDD) and serves to raise awareness of the need for safe blood, blood products, and to thank blood donors for their voluntary, life-saving gifts of blood.
World Blood Donor Day is one of eight official global public health campaigns marked by the World Health Organization (WHO), along with World Health Day, World Tuberculosis Day, World Immunization Week, World Malaria Day, World No Tobacco Day, World Hepatitis Day, and World AIDS Day.
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