Safe blood saves lives
This year, World Blood Donor Day will once again be celebrated around the world on 14 June. The event serves to thank voluntary, unpaid blood donors for their life-saving gift of blood and also to raise awareness of the need for regular blood donations to ensure that all individuals and communities have access to affordable and timely supplies of safe and quality-assured blood and blood products, as an integral part of universal health coverage and a key component of effective health systems.
What you can do
- Become a blood donor today and help make the world a healthier place.
- Commit to being a regular donor and give blood throughout the year.
- Encourage your friends and family to become regular blood donors.
- Volunteer with the blood service to reach out to members of your community, provide care to donors, and help manage blood donation sessions/drives.
- Find out your blood type and register as a blood donor.
- Participate in World Blood Donor Day with your social networks.
Key messages
- The world needs enough safe blood for everyone in need.
- Every few seconds, someone, somewhere, needs blood.
- Transfusions of blood and blood products save millions of lives every year.
- Health is a human right; everyone in the world should have access to safe blood transfusions, when and where they need them.
- Regular blood donations are needed all over the world to ensure individuals and communities have access to safe and quality-assured blood and blood products.
- Everyone who can donate blood should consider making regular voluntary, unpaid donations, so that all countries have adequate blood supplies.
- Ensuring the safety and well-being of blood donors is critical; it helps build commitment to regular donations.
- Access to safe blood and blood product is essential for universal health coverage and a key component of effective health systems.
- Blood and blood products are essential to care for:
- women with pregnancy and childbirth associated bleeding;
- children with severe anaemia due to malaria and malnutrition;
- patients with blood and bone marrow disorders, inherited disorders of haemoglobin and immune deficiency conditions;
- people with traumatic injuries in emergencies, disasters and accidents; and
- patients undergoing advanced medical and surgical procedures.
- The need for blood and blood products is universal, but access to safe blood and blood products varies greatly across and within countries.
- In many countries, it is challenging for blood services to make sufficient blood and blood products available, while also ensuring its quality and safety.
- Governments, national health authorities and national blood services must work together to:
- ensure systems and infrastructure are in place to increase collection of blood from voluntary, regular unpaid donors;
- establish and strengthen quality assurance systems for blood and blood products to ensure safe blood and blood products;
- provide quality donor care;
- promote and implement appropriate clinical use of blood; and
- oversee the whole chain of blood transfusion.