State to observe World Blood Donor Day today

Thiruvananthapuram: Health minister K Muraleedharan will inaugurate a series of programmes to mark World Blood Donor Day at Ayyankali Hall in the city at 11am on Wednesday.

Health department is organizing the event, with this year’s theme “Give a Drop of Humanity – Save a Life”, aiming to promote voluntary blood donation and raise public awareness about its importance.

As per reports, state requires between 6-7 lakh units of blood annually. In the previous year, state collected and distributed approximately 6,34,000 units of blood, of which nearly 77% came from voluntary donors. Govt aims to increase this figure to 100% through sustained awareness and donor mobilization efforts.

State has 45 blood banks operating in govt medical colleges and hospitals, besides 161 blood banks in the private sector. Last year, 3,790 voluntary blood donation camps collected around 1,38,000 units of blood across Kerala.

According to a health department statement, the primary objective is to eliminate situations where patients must depend on relatives or friends for blood donations and to prevent the practice of finding paid donors. Studies have shown that blood collected from voluntary donors is safer, while paid blood donation is prohibited by govt.

Blood is essential in managing medical emergencies and conditions such as childbirth complications, road accidents, natural disasters, surgeries, cancer, dengue fever, haemophilia, and thalassemia. Health authorities highlighted that no cases of transmission of HIV or other blood-borne infections such as Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, syphilis and malaria through blood transfusions have been reported in Kerala in recent years, reflecting state’s strong blood safety standards.

Kerala has implemented an advanced “vein-to-vein traceability” system that monitors the entire blood transfusion process, from collection to transfusion. The initiative recently received central govt’s Silver Award for Digital Transformation.

Also, Jeevadhara portal enables citizens to check real-time availability of blood and blood components at govt blood centres and register voluntary blood donation camps online.

State govt, in collaboration with Kerala State AIDS Control Society and Blood Transfusion Council, has been implementing a range of initiatives to ensure the availability of safe blood for all patients in need. These include quality assurance measures for govt and private blood banks, strengthening blood transfusion systems and conducting awareness campaigns to encourage voluntary blood donation.