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Written By: Editorial Team | Updated : June 14, 2018 3:36 PM IST
Many people lose life due to unavailability of blood. Blood donation is the need of the hour and by donating blood, one can gift life to many people. The purpose of the World Blood Donor Day is to create awareness by motivating people to come forward and donate blood. Also, blood donation has many health benefits too. Here, Indian doctors decode why blood donation is vital.
Dr Dharminder Nagar, MD, Paras Healthcare says, "Blood donation is a noble act that can help someone to live. However, the rate of donation is low in India, leading to a shortage during emergencies. People are afraid of donating blood, believing it would lead to weakness. It is important to organize more blood donation camps and create awareness among people who are healthy to donate."
Read:10 mistakes to avoid while donating blood!
Raktadaan is mahadaan, it is considered equivalent to jivandaan says Dr Partap Chauhan, Director of Jiva Ayurveda. "It is a life-giving activity that can save a person's life and all healthy men and women should donate blood whenever the opportunity presents itself. Blood donation not only saves the life of the receiver, it also helps the donor become healthier, so it is beneficial for both. However, it is very important for blood donors to eat a nutritious and healthy diet and rest well to recreate new blood cells, otherwise it may lead to blood deficiency problems, explains Dr Partap Chauhan.
"India suffers from severe blood shortage. The number of blood donors is not increasing due to several misconceptions among the potential donors. The most common myth is that after donating blood, one may lose weight or become weak. Donating blood is actually good for health because fresh blood is generated in the body to compensate for the loss," says Dr P Krishnamoorthy, Head of Dept., General Medicine & Hematology, Meenakshi Mission Hospital and Research Centre, Madurai.
According to Dr DS Rawat Consultant, Transfusion Medicine, PSRI Hospital, "Blood donation can be done by every individual between the age of 18 to 65 years once every three months. The requirement of replenishing the stocks is important as the shelf life of donated blood is only of 35 to 42 days, the plasma shelf-life is of 1 year and Platelets is of 5 days only. Donating blood also keeps a person healthy, so just go ahead to donate to save lives".
Read:10 mistakes to avoid while donating blood!
Dr Sadhana Mangwana, Sr. Consultant Blood Transfusion Services at Sri Balaji Action Medical Institute highlights, "Even in the era of modern science and technology, we do not have any substitute for human blood. So we can say that the gift of blood is the gift of life. India is a country with a population of more than 1.3 billion, still, India faces a huge shortage of blood i.e. more than 3 million units. Every two seconds, someone needs blood and a single unit of blood can saves 3 lives. Blood donations can save millions of lives every year as a single car accident victim can require as many as 70-80 units of blood. Donating blood is a safe process which hardly takes less than 10-12 minutes. So just go and donate blood to save lives.
"Every life is important and healthy donors are more important. With the theme this year "Be there for someone else. Give blood. Share life we need to understand that donating blood keeps you healthier as the body gets purified and increase in the chances to regenerate fresh blood cells. If every person starts donating blood voluntarily then no one will have to arrange an emergency blood donor in the need. No parent will see their child's death just because they did not get blood on time", informs Dr Satish Kaul, Senior Consultant, Internal Medicine at Narayana Superspeciality Hospital.
Dr Aseem Tiwari, Director- Blood Bank, Medanta says, "Blood transfusion saves lives but not all patients requiring transfusion have timely access to safe blood. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), India suffers from an annual deficit of two million blood units, as only 1% of Indian population donates blood each year. One of the primary reasons for people being reluctant to donate blood is the myths surrounding blood donation such as donating blood hurts, weakens the immune system and leads to weight gain. Blood donation is a simple 15-20 mins procedure and the prick of the needle is the only pain one feels. Also, any person who is a diabetic, a smoker or has high blood pressure is eligible for blood transfusion subject to certain conditions. Blood donation does not weaken the immune system and one can resume normal activities immediately after donating blood if enough water and juices are consumed to replenish body fluids."
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