World Blood Donor Day 2018 Date: Theme, History, Importance & Why is it Celebrated

World Blood Donor Day is an annual event celebrated every year on June 14 by the people in many countries around the world. The event serves to thank voluntary, unpaid blood donors for their life-saving gifts of blood and to raise awareness of the need for regular blood donations to ensure the quality, safety and availability of blood and blood products for patients in need. The theme for 2018 is ‘Blood Connects us All’ and this year the host country is Greece. The global event will be held in Athens.

Theme

The theme of this year’s campaign is blood donation as an action of solidarity. It highlights the fundamental human values of altruism, respect, empathy and kindness which underline and sustain voluntary unpaid blood donation systems. The slogan adapted by WHO is ‘Be there for someone else. Give blood. Share life’, to draw attention to the roles that voluntary donation systems play in encouraging people to care for one another and generate social ties and a united community.

The campaign aims to highlight 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 who have never given blood to begin doing so, particularly young people.

History

The event celebration was first started in the year 2004 aiming to raise the public awareness about the need for safe blood donation and unpaid by the healthy person. It was first initiated and established to be celebrated annually on June 14 by the WHO, in the year 2004. It was officially established by the organisation in May 2005 at the 58^th World Health Assembly to motivate all the countries worldwide to thank the blood donors for their precious step, promote voluntary, safe and unpaid blood donations to ensure the sufficient blood supplies.

Importance

Transfusion of blood and blood products helps save millions of lives every year. It can help patients suffering from life-threatening conditions live longer and with a higher quality of life. It also has an essential, life-saving role in maternal and child care and during the emergency response to man-made and natural disasters. Blood stocks are also essential in natural and man-made disasters. Some blood types are rare, so promoting the need for rare donor types is also part of this event. Many countries still have a shortage of donors and thus World Blood Donor Day is vital to these countries to raise awareness of blood donation and thus increase supply to save as many lives as possible.

Celebrations

The celebration involves organising lots of activities and programs on international and national level. Health care organisations like WHO, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the International Federation of Blood Donor Organisations (IFBDO) and the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT), work jointly to organise international level programs to promote people globally. Activities involve organising commemorative events, meetings, discussion, debates, quiz competitions, scientific conferences and promotional activities in schools, colleges, universities and other educational institutions.

WHO aims to obtain sufficient blood supplies from the voluntary and unpaid blood donors all over the world by 2020. According to the statistics, it has been noted that only 62 countries are getting sufficient blood supplies from the voluntary and unpaid blood donors whereas 40 countries are still dependent for the blood donations on the patient’s family member or paid donors. The day is celebrated to motivate voluntary and young healthy people to donate blood and help people get a new life.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 11, 2018 09:20 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).