The acting coordinator of Armed Forces Blood Centre, Port Harcourt, Col. A.A. Aloku, has appealed to the general public on the need for voluntary non-remunerated blood donation on a regular basis to put an end to avoidable deaths through commercial donors.
Col. Aloku made the appeal during this year’s World Blood Donor Day celebration in Port Harcourt, saying the theme of this year’s annual event “celebrating the gift of blood” while the slogan is “Give blood and keep the world beating” is focused on the essential contribution blood donors make to keep the world pulsating by saving lives and improving the health of others.
He noted that the theme strongly encourages more people all over the world to become blood donors in order to build a sustainable pool that is sufficient to meet needs of all patients requiring transfusion.
The Army Officer affirmed that the use of blood and blood products has become an integral part of modern medical practice. Access to safe blood and blood products is a key component of an effective health system, and a significant building block for the successful achievement of health related sustainable development goals, he noted.
According to him, Nigeria’s estimated blood need is 2 million units per annum but lamented that much less is currently donated leading to avoidable deaths, morbidities or ill health, particularly amongst the women folk, new-borns and children, victims of road traffic accidents and insurgencies.
The chairman of the occasion, Col. O.S. Idowu added that blood donation benefits both the donor and the recipients. Blood donor, he argued stands the chance of knowing their blood pressure reading and the control method.
And that it also helps to identify unknown health concerns such as HIV, syphilis etc during the course of test to ascertain the medical fitness of the donor.
He said although the donor donates blood to save lives but he also stands chance of reducing weight which helps to ward off diseases like diabetes and also has 88% reduction risk of heart diseases that kills silently.
