Covid-19 pandemic fails to deter voluntary blood donors

As much as 82% of blood units received in the state’s 230 public and private blood banks, from April to October this year, are from voluntary blood donation (VBD) drives, camps and visits to blood banks.

There are still five months left for this fiscal year to be accounted for. According to the Blood Safety wing of the Karnataka State AIDS Prevention Society (KSAPS), despite lockdowns and Covid fear, they had managed to collect 3,22,543 units of blood (including replacement blood units).

Dr Sunil Gupta, Director of National Blood Transfusion Council said at a panel discussion of ASSOCHAM that the fear that was initially present in the minds of the staff at blood centers isn’t there now with proper sanitisation measures, social distancing and methodical way of blood collection via prior appointments. Now our collection is almost close to that of pre-Covid times, he said.

“As per data of NACO, currently, 70% of blood donations are voluntary. Some states such as Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kerala and Tamil Nadu are particularly very active in voluntary blood donations. At the same time, some states are lagging and there is a huge gap.

We are trying to analyse why this gap exists in the country. We have realised that it has to do with the prevailing culture of the state and the mindset of the population. There is a need to change mindsets,” he said.

Cynthiya S, Quality Manager (Lab Services), KSAPS, Blood Safety, said, “The target for 2020-21 is to collect 8,08,529 units of blood. Till October, we have collected 39.89% of that target. In a week, we will get the figures of how much we collected in November.

Out of this, 2,65,825 units of blood were through voluntary blood donation. In 2019-20, 87% of the donations were through voluntary blood donation. Because of the lockdown and Covid, due to restrictions, it came down.

The voluntary blood donation excludes replacement units. For example, major surgeries require replacement donation. “We have a lot of NGOs helping us. We are also mobilising volunteers from social media platforms also. Each unit of blood is around 250 ml to 350 ml.

Initially, in the month of April, May and June, we had very less collection. We have four more months and are conducting more camps. People are more forthcoming now. Colleges are also open,” she said.

“Our main source of voluntary blood donors are IT companies. But since most employees are working from home, that entire pool is cut-off,” Cynthiya added.