The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Seminar lays stress on 100 per cent voluntary blood donation

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 06, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Seminar lays stress on 100 per cent voluntary blood donation

Page 3 city

``Good performance in West Bengal, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat''

Staff Reporter

CHENNAI : People do not come forward to donate blood because of poor awareness and motivation, and superstition, speakers said at a seminar on voluntary blood donation on Friday.

It is an Asian meet of the International Federation of Blood Donors Organisations, which aims at addressing the problem by roping in school students to carry home the message of voluntary donation.

The three-day meet on the theme — In quest of 100 per cent voluntary blood donation — has been jointly organised by the Association of Voluntary Blood Donors (AVBD) of Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. Supriya Sahu, project director, Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society, inaugurated the seminar.

Debabrata Ray of AVBD, West Bengal, said that only four States — West Bengal, Maharashtra Tamil Nadu and Gujarat — have managed to encourage voluntary donation.

Against the all-India average of 51 per cent, these States have registered good results — West Bengal (90%), Maharashtra (82%), Tamil Nadu (79%) and Gujarat (75%).

These States had more organisations and programmes that motivated donors and hence the results were good. Some of the poor performing regions included Uttaranchal, Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Bihar.

Dr. Ray said the State had involved over 300 schools to propagate voluntary donation and children helped to organise camps. Normally voluntary donors test negative for diseases such as syphilis or AIDS.

But, hepatitis is more common in India. Blood is tested for antibody and when people are in the window period for a disease, it will not show up in the tests.

Paid donors cannot be trusted as they generally hail from poor families.

Thirty-seven countries including Canada, Cuba, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Swaziland have achieved 100 per cent voluntary donation. Large countries such as India, North and South America (except Surinam) are lagging behind.

Niels Mikkelsen, president of the 60-year-old International Federation of Blood Donors Organisations in Denmark, will speak on `How to form a voluntary organisation' and `Changing face of blood donors'.

Delegates from Iran, Korea, China, Lebanon, Mauritius, Denmark, Macao, Nepal, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Oman, Bangladesh, Maldives and various parts of India are participating.

K.M. Radhakrishnan, Special Officer, Department of Transfusion Medicines, Tamilnadu Dr. MGR Medical University and R. Rajkumar, president of AVBD, Tamil Nadu, will share their experiences.

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