Every year, on June 14, countries around the world celebrate World Blood Donor Day to raise awareness of the need for regular blood donations to ensure the quality, safety and availability of blood and blood products for patients in need.

The theme of this year’s World Blood Donor Day, celebrated on June 14, is ‘Be there for someone else. Give blood. Share life’. The theme draws attention to the role that voluntary blood donation systems play in encouraging people to care for each other. It also serves as an opportunity to highlight the importance of supporting countries in making faster progress towards the development of national blood systems that ensure availability of, and access to, safe blood and blood products.

To mark this day, WHO Regional Director for South-East Asia Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh on June 13 said Blood banks across the WHO South-East Asia Region need more blood. Region-wide around 18 million units of blood are required annually. At present an estimated 15.9 million are collected. That leaves a deficit of just over 2 million units and makes the act of donating blood uniquely powerful: Put simply, it is one of the easiest ways to be there for someone else and to share life, she said in a statement.

Dr Poonam said well-coordinated blood and blood product systems can increase the act’s life-saving impact by ensuring that safe, high-quality blood products are available to all people at all times. In recent years Member States have made rapid strides towards that goal, with each of them now implementing national policies on blood transfusion and blood safety, including testing all blood for the potential of transfusion-transmitted infections.

That 82 per cent of the blood collected Region-wide is from voluntary, non-remunerated donors is testament to the civic responsibility many people share, and the effectiveness of the blood and blood product systems that have been put in place, she said. Nevertheless, by carrying out a series of key initiatives – including boosting donations – each of the Region’s Member States can build on their substantial gains and enhance the implementation of WHO’s global strategy for safe blood, the WHO Regional Director for South-East Asia said.