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| Year : 2017 | Volume
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| Issue : 5 | Page : 1357-1358 |
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| Establishing connection among all through blood donation: Current status and public health implications |
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Saurabh R Shrivastava, Prateek S Shrivastava, Jegadeesh Ramasamy
Department of Community Medicine, Shri Sathya Sai Medical College and Research Institute, Ammapettai, Tamil Nadu, India
Click here for correspondence address and email
| Date of Web Publication | 6-Nov-2017 |
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How to cite this article:
Shrivastava SR, Shrivastava PS, Ramasamy J. Establishing connection among all through blood donation: Current status and public health implications. Ann Trop Med Public Health 2017;10:1357-8 |
How to cite this URL:
Shrivastava SR, Shrivastava PS, Ramasamy J. Establishing connection among all through blood donation: Current status and public health implications. Ann Trop Med Public Health [serial online] 2017 [cited 2019 Dec 5];10:1357-8. Available from: http://www.atmph.org/text.asp?2017/10/5/1357/196825 |
Owing to the fact that timely blood transfusion can save lives of millions of people and even improve health status, due importance should be given to ensure the provision of safe and adequate amount of blood to the needy.[1]
However, more often than not, a major proportion of people are devoid of the required blood transfusion services, as only 50% of the globally collected blood donations cater to the needs of almost 82% of the world's population (low-income and middle-income nations), whereas the remaining half is utilized by the rest of the world's population living in high-income nations.[1],[2]
Moreover, only 27.5% of the nations are equipped with plasma fractionation, whereas the remaining nations are dependent on other nations.[1] On further stratification, it has been observed that females account for less than one-third of the global blood donations, which is again a matter of public health concern.[3] A wide range of factors like sex, level of awareness regarding different aspects, proximity to the donation site, prevalent misconceptions among people, previous experience, quality of social mobilization activities, and so on have influenced the decision of people to voluntarily come for blood donations.[2],[3],[4]
In addition, the available estimates suggest that even now, 30% of the nations have no blood policy and also falls short in having an effective organization and integrated blood supply networks.[1] The World Health Organization has advocated for ensuring a sufficient and dependable supply of safe blood, which can be predominantly achieved through the help of a regular, voluntary, and unpaid blood donors.[1],[4] Even though, a significant rise in blood donation from voluntary donors has been reported in the last decade, still many nations are accumulating their donations from family or paid donors.[1] Also, despite the recommendation of mandatory screening of blood for four infections (viz. HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and syphilis), almost 25 nations fail to screen all donated blood for all infections, predominantly because of the irregular supply of test kits.[1],[2]
Acknowledging the importance of blood donation and the presence of multiple barriers in heterogeneous settings, there is an indispensable need to address all the prevalent concerns and, thus, improve the global scenario.[2],[3],[4] The first priority is to target program managers and ensure that a national blood system with well-organized blood transfusion services is established, and is ably supported by the national blood policies with an ultimate aim to accomplish self-sufficiency.[1],[2] In addition, interventions like encouraging the practice of blood donation from low-risk, regular, voluntary unpaid donors, and gradually decrease or eliminate all other types of blood donation; ensuring quality-assured screening of all donated blood for four infections; formulating guidelines to warrant judicious use of blood and blood products; offering counselling to the donors to clear their misconceptions; adopting innovative mobile-based applications; and training health staff to adhere to quality assured practices, will significantly address the existing barriers.[1],[2],[3],[4],[5]
To conclude, ensuring safe and timely blood donation practices can significantly improve the health standards of people. However, the need of the hour is to strengthen the blood system of the nation and support it with evidence-based and effective policies.
Acknowledgement
S.R.S. contributed in the conception or design of the work, drafting of the work, approval of the final version of the manuscript, and agreed for all aspects of the work.
P.S.S. contributed in the literature review, revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content, approval of the final version of the manuscript, and agreed for all aspects of the work.
J.R. contributed in revising the draft, approval of the final version of the manuscript, and agreed for all aspects of the work.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
 References | |  |
| 1. | |
| 2. | Shrivastava SR, Shrivastava PS, Ramasamy J. Thank you for saving my life: blood donation matters. J Res Med Sci 2016;21:13.  [ PUBMED] |
| 3. | Gazibara T, Kovacevic N, Maric G, Kurtagic I, Nurkovic S, Kisic-Tepavcevic D. Factors associated with positive attitude towards blood donation among medical students. Transfus Apher Sci 2015;53:381-85. |
| 4. | Mauka WI, Mahande MJ, Msuya SE, Philemon RN. Factors associated with repeat blood donation at the northern zone blood transfusion centre in Tanzania. J Blood Transfus 2015;2015: 717653 |
| 5. | Yuan S, Chang S, Uyeno K, Almquist G, Wang S. Blood donation mobile applications: are donors ready?. Transfusion 2016;56:614-21. [ PUBMED] |
Correspondence Address:
Saurabh R Shrivastava
3rd Floor, Department of Community Medicine, Shri Sathya Sai Medical College and Research Institute, Ammapettai village, Thiruporur Guduvancherry Main Road, Sembakkam Post, Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/1755-6783.196825
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