A. The most prominent reason you can give yourself for donating blood is TO SAVE LIVES. Many deaths could be averted when people decide to voluntarily donate blood regularly.
- Free basic medical health checks
- Gives you self-fulfilment that you saved someone’s life
- Helps your body to produce new cells
- Reduces workload on the heart, kidney and liver.
- No monetary or material reward can match the satisfaction a donor get knowing that he/she has saved human life. That is why blood donation is sometimes called “The gift of life”.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) has designed has designed 14th of June every year as World Blood Donor Day. It’s a day set aside to recognise, appreciate and celebrate regular and faithful blood donors.
Health is proportional to amount of blood in circulation only to a limited extent. Beyond that, extra blood serves only as a reserve. In fact, too much blood in circulation is a disease in itself and the body keeps the blood level constant by destroying older red cells regularly. The pre-donation blood level (Haemoglobin) will be checked to determine your fitness to donate blood.
Safe blood is blood that is disease free and does not harm the person who receives it.
- Voluntary, unpaid and regular blood donors
- People with no risky behaviour
- People who meet donation criteria
All blood groups are needed namely: A, B, AB and O
A unit of blood (450mls), A little less than a sachet of pure water.
No medical known side effect.
- You must be healthy
- You must consider your blood safe
- Be between the ages of 18-65 years
- Weigh 50kg and above
- Lead a sexually safe lifestyle
- You must have had a meal at least four hours before donation
Males can donate blood every three (3) months
Female can donate blood every four (4) months.
- If you are not medically fit
- If you are pregnant or breastfeeding
- If you are presently on medications
If you have sickle cell disease, AIDS, syphilis etc.
- Those with severe anaemia
- Accident victims
- Anaemia and bleeding in pregnancy and childbirth
- Patients undergoing surgery
- Cancer, AIDS, and sickle cell disease patients
It is true that the volume of blood in a person’s circulation is related to body weight. However, a slender person who is tall can have the same weight as another who is short and plump. When an adult person is of small size, that is, both short and slim, the blood volume may be slightly lower than the average. However, if a person is lean because of illness, or there has been significant weight loss in recent times, then donation should be deferred until the person has completely recovered from the illness, and their normal weight has been regained.
Donated blood should not contain any substance such as drugs or alcohol which may harm the recipient. Therefore, if significant amounts of alcohol, which will usually be more than two bottles of beer, have been consumed in the preceding four to six hours, the donor would be asked to return after another four to six hours.
A. The only important substance, which the donor actually loses after a blood donation, is body iron. This iron which is lost can be replaced through a normal well-balanced diet. Condensed milk and raw eggs have no special effect other than as part of a balanced diet and eating raw eggs is unsafe and dangerous. Guinness stout is not recommended to be given to blood donors, rather non-alcoholic malt drinks and other soft drinks are safer for donors.
It is true that certain religious sects reject blood transfusion. However, they are not forbidden from donating blood to others. Blood donation is a philanthropic service, and every religion enjoins the faithful to help the needy.
No, blood is never sold when you donate your blood at the National Blood Service Commission (NBSC). However, there are other costs involved in blood donation, storage, and transfusion. These include the plastic blood bag, numerous tests done on the blood and the resources required to ensure that the storage of the blood is adequate for keeping the blood safe and intact. All these cost a lot of money, and so patients are required to pay a highly subsidised token access fee for these costs but not for the blood itself.
A pregnant woman cannot donate blood.
A breastfeeding mother can donate after 6 months.
