FORUM: “20 years of celebrating giving: thank you blood donors!.” World Blood Donor Day 2024. This celebration is an excellent and timely opportunity to thank blood donors across the world for their life-saving donations over the years and honour the profound impact on both patients and donors. It is also a timely moment to address continued challenges, and accelerate progress towards a future where safe blood transfusion is universally accessible.
The objectives of the campaign is:
- To thank and recognize the millions of voluntary blood donors who have contributed to the health and well-being of millions of people around the world.
- To showcase the achievements and challenges of national blood programmes and share best practices and lessons learned.
- To highlight the continuous need for regular, unpaid blood donation to achieve universal access to safe blood transfusion.
- To promote a culture of regular blood donation among young people and the general public and increase the diversity and sustainability of the blood donor pool.
Follow the conversations with the hashtags: #GiveBlood, #GivePlasma, #14june, #WorldBloodDonorDay, #BloodDonations.
EVENTS: On June 14th, 2024, the WHO, its partners and communities across the world will unite behind the theme to mark the World Blood Donor Day 2024. This year, we will commemorate the milestone of the 20th anniversary and the profound impact of blood donation on the lives of patients and donors. The campaign serves as an opportunity to express gratitude to blood plasma and platelet donors in the world for their lifesaving donations. Moreover, it calls for action, motivating more individuals to join the global movement of blood donation.
- June 13, 2024 - WBDD 2024 Webinar: Experiences in voluntary blood donation and organization of services.
- June 14, 2024 - The regional launch of the WBDD 2024 campaign.
STATEMENTS: Read the Message from the WHO Director General on World Blood Donor Day 2024; June 14th, Message from Dr Jarbas Barbosa, Director of PAHO on World Blood Donor Day 2024 and the Message of the WHO Regional Director for Africa on World Blood Donor Day 2024; June 14th.
KEY MESSAGES
- Safe blood saves lives.
- Blood is needed by women with complications during pregnancy and childbirth, children with severe anaemia, often resulting from malaria or malnutrition, accident victims and surgical and cancer patients.
- Regular blood donation by a sufficient number of healthy people is needed to ensure that blood will always be available whenever and wherever it is needed.
- While the need for blood is universal, access to blood is not. Blood shortages are acute in low- and middle-income countries.
- Every single blood or plasma donation is a precious lifesaving gift; regular donation is the key to building a safe and sustainable supply.
- Wide participation of the population in regular blood and plasma donations ensure that everyone can access blood and plasma proteins when they need it.
- Ensuring the safety and well-being of blood and plasma donors is critical; it helps build commitment to regular donations.
- Thank you, blood donors. Your selfless donations have had a profound impact on the lives and well-being of hundreds of millions of people, as well as their families and communities across the world.
What you can do
Everyone
- Be a voluntary blood donor and an inspiration to others.
- 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.
Ministries of Health
- Organize and participate in (virtual) activities to celebrate World Blood Donor Day, promoting voluntary unpaid blood donation to the public, across government and to other sectors.
- Acknowledge the crucial role of well-organized, committed voluntary, non-remunerated blood donors in ensuring a safe and sufficient blood supply during normal and emergency times.
- Provide resources and infrastructure to facilitate voluntary blood donation.
- Support the development of nationally coordinated blood transfusion services that provide equitable access to safe and quality assured blood transfusions for the whole population.
- Put quality assurance systems in place for blood and blood products.
- Speak to media about the importance of blood donation and the successes and challenges of your country in meeting national needs for blood.
National blood transfusion services
- Disseminate information about the importance of giving blood.
- Distribute campaign materials that you can download from the World Blood Donor Day campaign website.
- Organize a virtual World Blood Donor Day celebration. This could include: inviting prominent politicians, celebrities and sporting heroes to make videos or communicate on the importance of giving blood;
- Producing and disseminating promotional materials through your web site and social channels; setting up virtual visits of blood centres and inviting the public to learn about blood donation and transfusion; and promoting blood donation success stories and heroic blood donors to your media.
- Improve the infrastructure for blood donation and blood donor care.
- Focus attention on donor health and care and provide quality service to blood donors.
Who can give blood
Most people can give blood if they are in good health. There are some basic requirements one need to fulfill in order to become a blood donor. Below are some basic eligibility guidelines:
Age
You are aged between 18 and 65.
- In some countries national legislation permits 16–17 year-olds to donate provided that they fulfil the physical and hematological criteria required and that appropriate consent is obtained.
- In some countries, regular donors over the age of 65 may be accepted at the discretion of the responsible physician. The upper age limit in some countries are 60.
Weight
You weigh at least 50 kg.
- In some countries, donors of whole blood donations should weigh at least 45 kg to donate 350 ml ± 10%.
Health
You must be in good health at the time you donate.
You cannot donate if you have a cold, flu, sore throat, cold sore, stomach bug or any other infection.
If you have recently had a tattoo or body piercing you cannot donate for 6 months from the date of the procedure. If the body piercing was performed by a registered health professional and any inflammation has settled completely, you can donate blood after 12 hours.
If you have visited the dentist for a minor procedure you must wait 24 hours before donating; for major work wait a month.
You must not donate blood If you do not meet the minimum haemoglobin level for blood donation:A test will be administered at the donation site. In many countries, a haemoglobin level of not less than 12.0 g/dl for females and not less than 13.0 g/dl for males as the threshold.
Travel
Travel to areas where mosquito-borne infections are endemic, e.g. malaria, dengue and Zika virus infections, may result in a temporary deferral.
Many countries also implemented the policy to defer blood donors with a history of travel or residence for defined cumulative exposure periods in specified countries or areas, as a measure to reduce the risk of transmitting variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) by blood transfusion.
Behaviours
You must not give blood:
- If you engaged in “at risk” sexual activity in the past 12 months
- Individuals with behaviours below will be deferred permanently:
- Have ever had a positive test for HIV (AIDS virus)
- Have ever injected recreational drugs.
In the national blood donor selection guidelines, there are more behavior eligibility criteria. Criteria could be different in different countries.
Pregnancy and breastfeeding
Following pregnancy, the deferral period should last as many months as the duration of the pregnancy.
It is not advisable to donate blood while breast-feeding. Following childbirth, the deferral period is at least 9 months (as for pregnancy) and until 3 months after your baby is significantly weaned (i.e. getting most of his/her nutrition from solids or bottle feeding).
More information on eligibility to donate
National eligibility guidelines must be followed when people donate blood in the blood service in specific countries. To find out whether any health conditions, medications, professions or travel history to could affect your ability to give blood, please search for detailed information in the national/local blood services.
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