PESHAWAR: The people are not ready to donate blood voluntarily due to lack of education and awareness and the myths and misconceptions associated with blood donation, says a health department’s report.

The report compiled by Regional Blood Centre (RBC), Peshawar said that out of the 48,003 blood donations, 43,049 (89.68 per cent) were collected from family replacement donors while 4,954 (10.32 per cent) donations were collected from voluntary blood donors in 2021.

It shows a slight increase when compared to 9.70 per cent voluntary blood donors in 2020.

Out of the total donations collected in the outgoing year, 47,183 (98.30 per cent) were donated by male and only 820 (1.70 per cent) by female donors. This is much lower than the national statistics according to which approximately five per cent of females donate blood. Low blood donation rate among women is a source of concern, although in contrast to 2020, when female donations were only 0.8 per cent.

Report says lack of awareness main reason for low rate of voluntary blood donation

Out of the total blood donations, 5,888 (12.26 per cent) were collected in RBC while 42,115 (87.74 per cent) were collected at blood camps and collection points. In the previous year, 7.65 per cent units were collected in RBC as compared to 12.26 per cent during 2021. The recruitment and retention of blood donors are a global challenge, says the report.

Blood is a scarce commodity and demand for it is ever increasing. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that all countries should be self-sufficient in all blood products and that every blood donation should be voluntary, anonymous and non-remunerated.

The collection of blood from voluntary and non-remunerated blood donors is an important indicator of safety and quality.

According to the report, the objective of data collection is to generate credible statistics, compile data and analyse it for improvement in services, policy planning, actionable insights and improved utilisation of the scarce resources.

It said that that during the current year, 48,213 blood donors were attended, out of whom 210 were deferred due to numerous causes. Besides, an additional 208 units of platelet concentrates were collected through aphaeresis mostly to cater the needs of the patients. This is a 2.7 times increase when compared to 2020 when the number of donations collected were 17,793.

The designed capacity of RBC is 50,000 blood donations per year and so far 97 per cent target has been achieved due to the hard work of the staff to sensitise blood donors in the community coupled with increased coordination with the attached hospital blood banks to convert existing family replacement donors into regular voluntary blood donors in line with National Blood Donor Policy, 2011.

The policy calls for sensitisation of university or community-based donor organisations and conversion of family replacement donors into voluntary blood donors.

According to various studies, lack of female-friendly facilities, poor privacy, misconceptions, nutritional status, cultural and social factors contribute to low female donation rates. To understand the existing level of knowledge and awareness regarding blood donation, a nationwide knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) exercise was conducted for blood donors by National Safe Blood Transfusion Programme that identified possible causes of gender discrepancy in blood donations.

The findings suggest a public awareness campaign, which is yet to be launched, to address the issue of female donations as one of the core target areas, among others.

This intervention would strive to reduce prejudices, misconceptions and lower the barriers erected by the gatekeepers of family, community and society for blood donors.

“Unfortunately, voluntary donations are not common in our country. This problem has worsened by the fact that the country has a fragmented demand driven blood system for nearly six decades with a heavy reliance on family replacement donors. However, in times of national crisis, droves of volunteers throng the blood banks for blood donations to save the lives of unknown recipients,” said the study.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2021