Annually, countries around the world commemorate World Blood Donor Day (WBDD) on June 14. This is usually done for creation of awareness concerning the need for safe blood and blood products, as well as to appreciate voluntary and unpaid blood donors for donating life-saving gifts of blood. Blood donation is a blood service that provides patients with access to safe blood and blood products in adequate quantity, keeping the health system effective and efficient. In 2022, last year, the theme for WBDD was “Donating blood is an act of solidarity. Join the effort and save lives.”
The global theme for the 2023 World Blood Donor Day is “Give blood, give plasma, share life, share often”. It is centered in patients who require life-long transfusions support and the role to be played by every person through donation of the highly cherished gift of blood or plasma. It also has its focus on the significance of giving blood on a regular basis for creation of a safe and sustainable supply of blood and blood products. With this, it will be readily available around the world, thereby enabling every patient in need to receive treatments quickly.
Low- & middle-income countries lack access to safe blood & blood products.
Every blood donation is regarded as a valuable life-saving gift. Consequently, regular voluntary unpaid donation is considered responsible for developing a safe and sustainable blood supply. Voluntary unpaid plasma donation ensures availability of blood products for patients, particularly those whose health demand life-long transfusions such as thalassemia, sickle-cell anaemia, haemophilia and immune deficiencies. However, blood services in many countries are confronted with the challenge of ensure availability of sufficient blood, and its quality and safety.
Inaccessibility to safe blood and blood products, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, has dire impacts on every patient, including those who need regular transfusions. Many countries also require the need for increment in plasma donations for availability of sufficient plasma protein products for patients. One of the strategies of World Health Organization (WHO) is to provide assistance for low- and middle-income countries across the world to aid improvement in availability and quality of human blood.
Individuals who donate blood regularly are celebrated.
In 2005, World Blood Donor Day was officially designated as an annual commemoration by the World Health Assembly. As a means of showing support to low- and middle-income countries which have acute blood shortages, World Health Organization (WHO) assists through optimization of the plasma collected from whole blood donations, thereby increasing access to valuable plasma protein therapies for patients. The highlight of this annual event is the appreciate of voluntary blood donors across the globe who ensure the possibility of the achievement of universal access to safe blood transfusion.
Objectives for this year’s WBDD event include celebration of individuals who donate blood; encouragement of healthy people to donate blood on a regular basis, when it is safe and possible, for transformation of the quality of life of patients who are dependent on transfusion; highlighting the crucial roles of voluntary regular plasma donations in achievement of universal access to safe plasma products for the population; and mobilization of support at national, regional and global levels for investment, strengthening and sustenance of national blood programmes.
Algeria is the host country for this year 2023’s celebration.
Activities at the event include social networking campaigns, social media posts, meetings and workshops, donor appreciation ceremonies, special media broadcasts, musical and artistic events and others. Countries are urged to spread words of the commemoration across their nations and share stories of people to media outlets, especially transfusion-dependent patients whose lives have been saved and sustained through plasma donation. This awareness and stories will motivate blood and plasma donation. The host county for WBDD 2023 is Algeria.
Related Link
WHO: Website
World Blood Donor Day ‘23 encourages donation – Blood donation is an act of solidarity that should be encouraged. – Express your point of view.
The commemoration of World Blood Donor Day (WBDD) should be the period to create awareness about the need for voluntary blood donation. A lot of people shy away from this important exercise because they were not informed.
World Blood Donor Day 2023 serves as an important reminder if the need for voluntary blood donation to save lives. Encouraging individuals to donate blood regularly can help bridge the gap between blood demand and supply and ensure that lifesaving blood transfusions are available to those who nee bit the most.
The time to raise awareness of the value of voluntary blood donation should be around the celebration of World Blood Donor Day Many people refrain from participating in this crucial activity because they don’t have much knowledge about it
The year 2023’s World Blood Donor Day serves as a crucial reminder of the necessity of voluntary blood donation in order to save lives. Regular blood donations can help save many life who needed blood to survive and it will be available anytime is needed we should all encourage blood donation
World Blood Donor Day is a great momentum to encourage those who are able and willing to donate to do so to help close the deficit gap and see it as an act of giving.
The World Blood Donor Day celebration is the ideal moment to spread awareness of the need of voluntary blood donation. Because they lack sufficient information, many people choose to forego this vital activity.
The commemoration of the World Blood Donor Day (WBDD) will create awareness about the importance of blood donation and why it is necessary. I will encourage more volunteers to donate without requesting for payment since life is on the line here.
World Blood Donor Day ‘23 encourages donation. More awareness should be created to the public about the important of blood donation. Some do sell their blood just to make money for their need. Is very hard to donate free blood in Nigeria due to hardship
Days like this world blood donor day should be pronounced more. It is a really great international day. It is a day to save more lives through the donation of blood and it is such a good thing.