World Blood Donor Day: More mothers could be saved

EVERY day, about 800 women die from pregnancy- or childbirth-related complications.

Severe bleeding during delivery and after childbirth is a major cause of mortality, morbidity and long-term disability. The goal of the campaign is to increase awareness about why timely access to safe blood and blood products is essential for all countries as part of a comprehensive approach to prevent maternal deaths.

Every country needs to ensure that supplies of blood and blood products are sufficient and free from infections that can be transmitted through transfusion.

Regular, voluntary, unpaid blood donors are the safest group of donors, as the prevalence of blood-borne infections is lowest among these donors. Voluntary unpaid donors account for 100 percent of blood supplies in 60 countries but, in 73 countries, less than 50 percent of blood supplies come from voluntary unpaid donors,

Around 107 million units of blood  are collected globally every year. Nearly 50 percent of these blood donations are collected in high-income countries, home to 15 percent of the world’s population. The average blood donation rate is more than nine times greater in high-income countries than in low-income countries.

All donated blood should always be screened for HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C and syphilis prior to transfusion. Yet 25 countries are not able to screen all donated blood for one or more of these infections. Testing is not reliable in many countries because of staff shortages, poor quality test kits, irregular supplies, or lack of basic quality in laboratories.

Separating blood into its various components allows a single unit of blood to benefit several patients and provides a patient only the blood component which is needed. About 97 percent of the blood collected in high-income countries, 78 percent in middle-income countries and 40 percent in low-income countries is separated into blood components.