Recognizing the impact, expressing gratitude to blood donors around the world
Recognizing the impact, expressing gratitude to blood donors around the world
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00:00On June 14, 2024 World Blood Donor Day will mark its 20th anniversary with a theme
00:0520 years of celebrating giving. Thank you blood donors. This milestone presents a unique
00:11opportunity to express gratitude to blood donors worldwide for their life-saving contributions
00:16and to recognize the significant impact they have had on patients and donors alike. The campaign
00:22aims to address ongoing challenges and accelerate progress towards ensuring universal access to safe
00:28blood transfusions. The objectives of this year's campaign include thanking and acknowledging the
00:33millions of voluntary blood donors who have positively impacted the health and well-being
00:39of countless individuals, showcasing the achievements and challenges of national blood
00:44programs. Time to tell us more about the World Donor Day. We have with us tonight
00:50Dr. Monina Nalupta from Red Cross. Good evening and welcome. Good evening. Thank you so much.
00:55Thank you very much also. I'm very excited because tomorrow is a very significant day. It is
01:02impactful to the entire world and to those that really need it. First of all, can you tell us
01:07about the overall importance and significance of World Blood Donor Day and why it's very important
01:12to raise awareness about safe blood donations? Yeah, thank you very much. It's really, really
01:18very important that we celebrate every year, at least once a year, the World Blood Donor Day.
01:24We've been celebrating this for 20 years. It was established in 2005 by the World Health Assembly,
01:31a policy body of the World Health Organization. And we really would want to highlight the importance
01:39of regular giving every three months, four times a year, especially among the youth.
01:45You would want to instill in the minds at a very young age that giving blood is healthy
01:53and sustaining, having a sustainable blood supply all year round is basically giving life
02:04to the millions of patients that need the blood supply. Yeah, Dr. Nalupta, I'm just wondering,
02:11how old can you actually start giving blood and do you need to have specific health parameters?
02:18Definitely, you can give at the age of 16, of course, with a consent from your guardian or
02:26parent, 16 and 17, and up to 65 years old. Basically, when you donate blood, you will be
02:33examined by our doctor. We have a set of questions to guide you or to assess if you will be able to
02:41donate blood, if you're healthy enough to donate blood. And that's it, 16 to 17 years old,
02:47at least 50 kilograms with good health at the time of donation. Okay, it's important
02:55when you encounter an emergency, especially a family member rushed to the hospital or a friend
03:00in need of a vital transfusion, that we know the first steps to take when we need to give blood
03:07or find someone that can donate the blood needed. Can you just maybe give us a run-through
03:15because there are a lot of different blood types and there's also a matching process, like you said,
03:20in a health check. Of course, when you need blood, we would want or we request a prescription
03:27from the hospital or your doctor. We would know what to give based on the diagnosis,
03:35your diagnosis based on the prescription of your doctor. Because from a whole blood,
03:41we need to process it. Of course, we do testing to five infections like HIV,
03:49hepatitis B and hepatitis C, malaria and syphilis. And we do separate them into components like
03:57from a whole blood, you can get plasma. From plasma, you can derive platelets. And from the
04:04whole blood, you can also get PAC red cells, red blood cells. So from a diagnosis of, for example,
04:11a dengue patient, perhaps this dengue patient might need platelets to increase their platelet
04:18count because in most cases for dengue patients, there's a reduction of platelets. So for patients
04:26with sepsis or infection, they might need a plasma or for dialysis patients or those who have
04:34lost enough volumes of blood, they would need PAC RBC. So definitely access to a safe and
04:44quality blood supply, of course, is very, very important. And before you access it, we really need
04:51of course, a prescription from the doctor. Yeah, very, very curious. There are individuals,
04:58for example, that have gotten tattoos and they have also said that, you know, this now makes
05:04their blood unclean. But I have also heard that it only, the period of non-viability of the blood
05:10can only last maybe for a few months and then you can actually donate. What's the truth of that?
05:15For those who have tattooed recently, gotten a tattoo recently, at least
05:22less than one year, definitely there's a deferral period because we would never know
05:29during tattooing they might get infection. That's why we opt to have them deferred
05:38for at least one year. Thereafter, then if they still would want to donate blood, then
05:43we qualify them to donate. Okay, Dr. Nalupta, I am an O+, but I also have a friend who's an AB.
05:55So there are different kinds of blood types and there are also different restrictions and
06:00benefits of this. Can you maybe give us an overview of what these are? Yeah, we have different blood
06:06types and we have the rhesus factor, RH positive or RH negative. We Filipinos, 99% of Filipinos,
06:16are RH positive. We have type O RH positive, A positive, B positive, AB positive, and the
06:23rarest blood are those rhesus negative, O negative, A negative, AB negative, and B negative.
06:32So for our RH negative blood supply, definitely we don't regularly ask them to give blood because
06:44the demand is also low. But of course, we keep their names through a registry so that when the
06:50time or when there are requests, we just call upon them to donate blood. Okay, because there is a
06:58blood type that's the universal donor or universal recipient. Which blood types are those?
07:03Universal donor is a type O and the universal recipient is type AB. Okay, all right, I'll remember
07:10that because sometimes when you are in a panic, sometimes you forget these things. But I think
07:15that's why it's important when, you know, in your identification, part of it
07:19should also include your blood type, right? Yes. Okay, so very interestingly enough, many
07:26countries around the world are also celebrating World Blood Donor Day. Why? I mean, it is important
07:33to thank donors around the world, but what is at the heart of thanking them for their, I would say,
07:39tireless and unpaid donations? We want to really acknowledge the selflessness, the compassion,
07:50and the solidarity that they show, at least to improve the healthcare system and to save lives.
08:01Okay, the world has changed in so many ways, just like the air quality, food quality, and,
08:10you know, like they say sometimes now, sitting and stress is also the new cancer, like they say,
08:15or the new smoking. So is it now more of a challenge to find individuals that fit the
08:21right parameters for a healthy blood donor? Or what are some challenges that you now have
08:26experienced that maybe was not experienced maybe in the last 10 or 20 years? It's still the same,
08:33the challenges that we have right now are the lean month period during December and January
08:43when everyone takes a holiday break. And they are not here in the Philippines, they go on
08:48vacation abroad, so less of the people donate blood. Okay, but health status-wise, the quality
08:58of the blood, the quality of the blood, it doesn't matter because first, before they donate blood,
09:04we do a regular checkup and we do screen the blood supply that we get from them. Okay,
09:13how are we doing in terms of sufficient blood supply? Are we doing okay as far as maybe the
09:19Red Cross Bank is concerned and other well-known banks? According to the Department of Health,
09:26I heard them speaking earlier. Actually, just to brief you, the national blood requirement
09:35for a country is 1% of the population. So if we are about 110 million people, so yearly we need at
09:46least 1.1 million blood units. And according to Department of Health, we are fortunate enough
09:52that last year we were able to collect at least 1.2 million blood units. So having said, I guess
10:03we are self-sufficient. And from the 1.2 million blood units collected that year, the contribution
10:09of the Philippine Red Cross was about 538,000 blood units from our 108 Red Cross blood service
10:18facilities all over the country. Just to clarify, Dr. Nalupta, this is 1.1 million blood units per
10:24year or as a whole? Per year. Wow, this is great. This is great. That means to say we are able to
10:31respond to emergencies and tragedies and those that also need emergency transfusions. I'm very
10:37glad we're moving in the right direction. But the most important thing is there should be
10:41an equitable supply of blood all throughout the years. We don't want a lean and mean season
10:49or a feast and famine period wherein everybody donates on a certain month and the rest of the
10:56month or lean months period. So equitable distribution is very much important in terms of
11:03having a sufficient and efficient blood services system in the country. All right, to invite our
11:12viewers right now to become blood donors for the Red Cross, please do let us know how to do that.
11:17Yes, Trish and everyone, thank you to our blood donors. They are the lifeline of the people.
11:23If you would want to donate blood, we have 108 Red Cross blood service facilities all over the
11:28country and we have a hotline. It's Red Cross. It's 143-HOTLINE. You can access or you can call
11:36143 and ask where and when to donate blood. Thank you. That's great. I will remember that hotline.
11:44Many thanks. Thank you very much for your time today. Thank you very much.