World Blood Donor Day - June 14, 2022

Every year on June 14th, people around the world celebrate World Blood Donor Day (WBDD). The event serves to raise awareness of the need for safe blood and blood products and to thank voluntary, unpaid blood donors for their life-saving gifts of blood. It also shows how easy and uncomplicated it is to donate blood.

Whether you work at a hospital, have been injured, need plasma treatments for anemia, or have anemia chronic anemia that requires regular donations, donating blood has been known to save lives on numerous occasions.

A blood service that gives patients access to safe blood and blood products in sufficient quantity is a key component of an effective health system. Safe blood and blood products and their transfusion are critical aspects of care and public health. They save millions of lives and improve the health and quality of life of many patients every day. The need for blood is universal, but access to blood for all those who need it is not. Blood shortages are particularly acute in developing countries. The global theme of World Blood Donor Day changes each year in recognition of the selfless individuals who donate their blood to people unknown to them.

History of World Blood Donor Day

The history of blood donation goes far back, with the first transfusions done using poorly understood science and very early research. But it wasn’t until Richard Lower was the first one to examine the science of blood donation with animals. He managed to successfully transfuse blood between two dogs with no appreciable ill effects.

And the science that surrounded the topic of blood slowly developed from that point, breaking taboos and moving from animal experimentation. From progress in transfusion technology to Karl Landsteiner discovering the ABO human blood type system to best determine donors, blood transfusions quickly became a staple in health topics and the medical field.

Following on from the success of World Health Day in the year 2000, which focussed on blood donation and the safety of transfusions, ministers of health from all across the world made a unanimous declaration in May 2005, during the 58th World Health Assembly, to designate World Blood Donor Day as an annual event held on every June 14, choosing Landsteiner’s birthday to commemorate it.

World Blood Donor Day aims to raise awareness regarding the need for regular blood donations, the importance to keep the health industry with a stable supply, and to celebrate the hard work of medical professionals that work in the research and development of new technology and uses for donated blood, as well as medical teams who use blood on a regular basis. This day is also used to thank donors for their service and determination to save lives and make the world a better place.

World Blood Day 2022

For 2022, the World Blood Donor Day slogan will be “Donating blood is an act of solidarity. Join the effort and save lives” to draw attention to the roles that voluntary blood donations play in saving lives and enhancing solidarity within communities.

The specific objectives of this year’s campaign are to:

• thank blood donors in the world and create wider public awareness of the need for regular, unpaid blood donation;
• highlight the need for committed, year-round blood donation, to maintain adequate supplies and achieve universal and timely access to safe blood transfusion;
• recognize and promote the values of voluntary unpaid blood donation in enhancing community solidarity and social cohesion;
• raise awareness of the need for increased investment from governments to build a sustainable and resilient national blood system and increase collection from voluntary non-remunerated blood donors.
• A particular activity that countries in the world are encouraged to implement for this year’s campaign is to disseminate to various media outlets stories of people whose lives have been saved through blood donation as a way of motivating regular blood donors to continue giving blood, and to motivate people in good health who have never given blood to begin doing so.

Other activities that would help promote the slogan of this year’s World Blood Donor Day may include donor appreciation ceremonies, social networking campaigns, special media broadcasts, social media posts showing featuring individual blood donors with the slogan, meetings and workshops, musical and artistic events to thank blood donors and celebrate solidarity, and coloring iconic monuments red.

Your involvement and support will help to ensure a greater impact for World Blood Donor Day 2022, increasing recognition worldwide that giving blood is a life-saving act of solidarity and that services providing safe blood and blood products are an essential element of every health care system. Participation of interested partners is welcome at all levels to make World Blood Donor Day 2022 a global success.

Key Facts on Blood Safety and Availability

• Of the 118.5 million blood donations collected globally, 40% of these are collected in high-income countries, home to 16% of the world’s population.
• In low-income countries, up to 54 % of blood transfusions are given to children under 5 years of age; whereas, in high-income countries, the most frequently transfused patient group is over 60 years of age, accounting for up to 76% of all transfusions.
• Based on samples of 1000 people, the blood donation rate is 31.5 donations in high-income countries, 16.4 donations in upper-middle-income countries, 6.6 donations in lower-middle-income countries, and 5.0 donations in low-income countries.
• An increase of 10.7 million blood donations from voluntary unpaid donors has been reported from 2008 to 2018. In total, 79 countries collect over 90% of their blood supply from voluntary unpaid blood donors; however, 54 countries collect more than 50% of their blood supply from family/replacement or paid donors.
• Only 65 of 171 reporting countries produce plasma-derived medicinal products (PDMP) through the fractionation of plasma collected in the reporting 16 countries reported that no PDMP was used during the reporting period, and 8 countries did not respond to the question.
• The volume of plasma for fractionation per 1000 population varied considerably between the 45 reporting countries, ranging from 0.1 to 52.6 liters, with a median of 5.2 liters.

National Blood Policy and Organization

Blood transfusion saves lives and improves health, but many patients requiring transfusion do not have timely access to safe blood. Providing safe and adequate blood should be an integral part of every country’s national health care policy and infrastructure.

The World Health Organization recommends that all activities related to blood collection, testing, processing, storage, and distribution be coordinated at the national level through effective organization and integrated blood supply networks. The national blood system should be governed by national blood policy and legislative framework to promote the uniform implementation of standards and consistency in the quality and safety of blood and blood products.

In 2018, 73 % of reporting countries, or 125 out of 171, had a national blood policy. Overall, 66% of reporting countries, or 113 out of 171, have specific legislation covering the safety and quality of blood transfusion, including:

• 79% of high-income countries
• 63% of middle-income countries
• 39% of low-income countries

Clinical Use of Blood

Unnecessary transfusions and unsafe transfusion practices expose patients to the risk of serious adverse transfusion reactions and transfusion-transmissible infections. Unnecessary transfusions also reduce the availability of blood products for patients who are in need.

The WHO recommends the development of systems, such as hospital transfusion committees and haemovigilance, to monitor and improve the safety of transfusion processes. In this regard:

• 128 countries have national guidelines on the appropriate clinical use of blood: 32 countries in the African region (74% of reporting countries in the region), 23 in the Americas (70%), 12 in the Eastern Mediterranean (67%), 33 in Europe (80%), 9 in the South East Asia (90%), and 19 in the Western Pacific (76%).
• Transfusion committees are present in 48% of the hospitals performing transfusions: 62% in hospitals in high-income countries, 35% in upper-middle-income countries, 31 in lower-middle-income countries, and 25% in low-income countries.
• Systems for reporting adverse transfusion events are present in 55% of the hospitals performing transfusions: 74% in hospitals in high-income countries, 35% in upper-middle-income countries, 22% in lower-middle-income countries, and 18% in low-income countries, 
• 49% of reporting countries have a haemovigilance system. The European region has the highest percentage of countries with haemovigilance systems (81%), followed by the Western Pacific (50%), the Eastern Mediterranean (50%), Africa (40%), South-East Asia (40%), and the Americas (21%).

Blood Supply

About 118.54 million blood donations are collected worldwide. 40% of these are collected in high-income countries, home to 16 % of the world’s population.

About 13 300 blood centers in 169 countries report collecting a total of 106 million donations. Collections at blood centers vary according to income group. The median annual donation per blood center is 1 300 in low-income countries, 4 400 in lower-middle-income countries, and 9 300 in upper-middle-income countries, as compared to 25 700 in high-income countries.

There is a marked difference in the level of access to blood between low- and high-income countries. The whole blood donation rate is an indicator of the general availability of blood in a country. The median blood donation rate in high-income countries is 31.5 donations per 1000 people. This compares with 16.4 donations per 1000 people in upper-middle-income countries, 6.6 donations per 1000 people in lower-middle-income countries, and five donations per 1000 people in low-income countries.

Blood Donors

An adequate and reliable supply of safe blood can be assured by a stable base of regular, voluntary, unpaid blood donors. These donors are also the safest group of donors as the prevalence of bloodborne infections is the lowest among this group. World Health Assembly resolution WHA63.12 urges all Member States to develop national blood systems based on voluntary unpaid donations and to work towards the goal of self-sufficiency.

Data reported to WHO shows significant increases in voluntary unpaid blood donations in low- and middle-income countries:

• An increase of 10.7 million blood donations from voluntary unpaid donors from 2008 to 2018 has been reported by 119 countries. The highest increase of voluntary unpaid blood donations is in the South-East Asia Region (127%) followed by the Region of the Americas  (81%) and Africa (81%). The maximum increase in absolute numbers was reported in the Western Pacific Region (4.15 million donations), followed by South-East Asia (3.05 million) and Africa (1.53 million donations).
• 79 countries collect more than 90% of their blood supply from voluntary unpaid blood donations (38 high-income countries, 33 middle-income countries and eight low-income countries). This includes 64 countries with 100% (or more than 99%) of their blood supply from voluntary unpaid blood donors.
• In 54 countries, more than 50% of the blood supply is still dependent on family/replacement and paid blood donors (nine high-income countries, 37 middle-income countries, and 10 low-income countries).

Blood Screening

The WHO recommends that all blood donations should be screened for infections prior to use. Screening for HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and syphilis should be mandatory. Blood screening should be performed according to quality system requirements. Of reporting countries, 10 are not able to screen all donated blood for one or more of the above infections.

99.8% of the donations in high-income countries and 99.9% in upper-middle-income countries are screened following basic quality procedures, as compared to 83% in lower-middle-income countries and 76 % in low-income countries. The prevalence of transfusion-transmissible infections in blood donations in high-income countries is considerably lower than in low- and middle-income countries.

Blood Processing

Blood collected in an anticoagulant can be stored and transfused to a patient in an unmodified state. This is known as a ‘whole blood’ transfusion. However, blood can be used more effectively if it is processed into components, such as red cell concentrates, platelet concentrates, plasma and cryoprecipitate. In this way, it can meet the needs of more than one patient.

The capacity to provide patients with the different blood components they require is still limited in low-income countries: 38% of the blood collected in low-income countries is separated into components, 75% in lower-middle-income countries, 96% in upper-middle-income countries, and 96% in high-income countries.

Blood Transfusions

There are great variations between countries in terms of the age distribution of transfused patients. For example, in high-income countries, the most frequently transfused patient group is over 60 years of age, which accounts for up to 76% of all transfusions. In low-income countries, up to 54% of transfusions are for children under the age of 5 years.

In high-income countries, transfusion is most commonly used for supportive care in cardiovascular surgery, transplant surgery, massive trauma, and therapy for solid and hematological malignancies. In low- and middle-income countries it is used more often to manage pregnancy-related complications and severe childhood anemia.

Why World Blood Day is Important

It saves lives

Before blood transfusions became a regular medical practice, lives were regularly lost as a result of an inadequate blood supply. Blood donations end up supporting a wide variety of medical needs, from pre-planned, minor procedures to emergency surgeries. Blood transfusions are an important part of the planned treatment of cancer patients or expecting mothers, as well as vital in case of disasters or car crashes.

There is always a need for more blood donations

Donating blood is a quick, easy, and incredibly safe process, but only a small subsection of the population are regular blood donors. Out of the people who are considered “eligible” to donate blood, only about 10 percent choose to do so. Because blood donation is an entirely voluntary process, World Blood Donor Day is an important reminder of how there can never be such a thing as “too many blood donations.” In the United States alone, someone needs blood every two seconds!

Blood supply is a global issue

Having an adequate blood supply is, obviously, necessary in every country on earth. Right now, many developed countries are able to rely on voluntary, unpaid blood donations to meet 100% of their blood supply needs. But finding those volunteers and making sure the blood is safe is still a big issue in developing countries, and they often have to rely on either family or paid donations. The WHO is working hard to ensure that, in the near future, blood donations all over the world will be entirely unpaid and voluntary.

Observing World Blood Donor Day

World Blood Donor Day is an extremely important awareness day. Countries all over the world take part in this campaign to stress the importance of safe blood donation, and why healthy people should absolutely donate blood. 

Blood drives are set up in schools, institutions, and workplaces. People are informed and assured that the blood donation process will be safe and can contribute to saving someone’s life or help in research. Non-profit organizations and related services create material like posters, banners, and flyers for distribution and educating people on blood donation. The day also serves as a thank you to all those who regularly contribute their life-saving gift of blood.

Sources:

https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-blood-donor-day

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/blood-safety-and-availability

https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-blood-donor-day/2021#cms

https://www.who.int/news-room/events/detail/2022/06/14/default-calendar/world-blood-donor-day-2022

https://nationaltoday.com/world-blood-donor-day/