World Blood Donor Day
Safe blood for safe motherhood
Star Health Desk
On 14 June 2007, the global community will again celebrate World Blood Donor Day. This day is an annual event officially designated by the World Health Assembly to recognise and thank the millions of people around the world who donate their blood on a voluntary, altruistic unpaid basis to help save the lives and improve the health of others.The day will encourage more people to become voluntary blood donors and will underline the importance of regular donation to prevent blood shortages. It will also demonstrate a renewed commitment by policy makers and health professionals to work towards making safe blood transfusion available for all patients who require it as part of their treatment. This year, the theme of World Blood Donor Day will be Safe Blood for Safe Motherhood to highlight the life-saving role of safe blood donation transfusion in maternal and perinatal care. It will also introduce a new WHO initiative to improve the timely availability of safe blood in health facilities providing emergency obstetric care, particularly in countries with high maternal mortality, and on measures to reduce unnecessary transfusions. World-wide there are more than 500000 maternal deaths each year, - 99% of them in developing countries. Maternal deaths are attributable to haemorrhage and the risk of developing complications due to severe bleeding is further increased in pregnant women with underlying conditions such as anaemia, sepsis. Improved access to safe blood transfusion can help to prevent the death and improve the health of many millions of women and their newborns and is a vital component of global efforts to achieve the health-related Millennium Development Goals. Throughout the world, World Blood Donor Day will be the focus of special activities to pay tribute to the millions of people who selflessly donate the life-saving gift of blood. Governments and national blood transfusion services will join hands with national Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, voluntary blood donor organisations, community organisations, schools and colleges to mark longer-term campaigns to increase the number of voluntary, regular blood donors. Since it was first launched in 2004, World Blood Donor Day has also served as a platform for broader activities in many countries including the restructuring of national blood transfusion services, the development of legislation on voluntary blood donation and the launch of national guidelines on blood transfusion.
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