Blood is the only health commodity that can’t be served or procured in any pharmacy or drug store. Therefore, blood transfusion is one of the most important and irreplaceable treatment support in the health system.
Due to its importance and precious nature, the WHO has even listed it among its essential medicines. In many developed, developing and even middle income countries around the globe, blood is considered to be key when it comes to women in child bearing either prenatal or post-natal. This makes the availability and accessibility of blood a key ingredient.
In the Tuesday’s edition of The Point, we ran a story in which the Ministry of Health through the National Blood Transfusion Services, World Bank and the World Health Organisation last Wednesday joined the rest of the globe to mark World Blood Donor day. The campaign slogan for this year was: ‘Give blood, give plasma, share life, share often.’
The day in essence highlights the selfless sacrifice of thousands of unpaid volunteers, often donate blood. These volunteers are not only worthy of commendation, but are real heroes who save lives. Their courage and determination to help save life speaks volumes of their love for nature, for which we will continue to celebrate them for their generosity and solidarity.
We cannot end, without paying homage to our men and women in uniform, who are always ready to donate blood. Sometimes even in odd hours, our security forces are always ready to save humanity by donating blood.
Blood is key in any living soul and we thus encourage all to be regular blood donors. The surge in maternal mortality is somehow linked to inadequate shortage of blood. And this concern could be drastically reduced ‘if people change their attitude’ and embrace voluntary blood donation.
Blood donation is key and around the globe it is on high demand. In some countries health officials collect 100 per cent of their blood through voluntary unpaid donors.
It is high time we encouraged volunteers to be in the forefront of this crusade. When you donate blood, you indeed give an invaluable and priceless gift of life. We must remember that every blood donation saves live and together we can create a healthier and stronger Gambia.