By Tashor Pali

Our state Arunachal Pradesh which is essentially tribal in character once had many myths and misconceptions attached to blood donation. A popular and weird one was that, if someone donated blood to a sick person and God forbid, if that person died, the ghost of that person will haunt the donor all throughout his or her life as both are connected through blood. The other myth was that if one donates blood to his wife or girlfriend, she becomes his sister as she will be carrying his blood. There was also a belief that blood donation makes a person weak. These were some of the interesting and funny but weird and unfounded reasons which discouraged blood donors in our state for long. 
Without going into the technical details, we must understand that blood is required on a daily basis for the patients suffering from cancer, thalassemia, haemophilia and many other ailments besides the accident cases. At the same time we need to understand that in spite of making so much progress in the field of medical science, till date there is no substitute for blood. It’s a product which can be produced only in a human body and there is no factory or industry which can manufacture blood in order to make it available for the needy patients. So, in a simple language, it is just priceless and has to come from a human body only. Blood donation, apart from giving a person a sense of self-satisfaction has many health benefits which include reduction of harmful iron count, regeneration of new cells, preservation of cardiovascular health, burning of calories, reduction of cancer risk and a free blood analysis. 
The requirement of blood is calculated to be around 1.5 % of the total population every year and that means roughly our state with around 1.2 million population needs approximately 18000 units of blood every year. But it’s a fact that collection is far from the actual requirements and voluntary blood donation activities in our state was almost negligible until a few years back. In recent times it has improved a lot with the collection hovering around 8000 to 9000 units annually. Still, it is very less compared to the annual requirement. But with the coming up of some NGOs like AVDO, I Love Arunachal and CBOs like GWS etc. and with the establishment of the State Blood Transfusion Council under the Directorate of Health Services, voluntary blood donation movement in the state has gained momentum. The need now is to keep alive the tempo generated and also accelerate it in the coming days through robust IEC campaigns so that every individual understands that blood donation is an invaluable gift which can be given to humanity without losing anything. Today is the World Blood Donor Day which is observed across the world every year on June 14, the birthday of Austrian physician and Nobel laureate Karl Landsteiner who discovered the blood groups in human body. This is one of the eight public health campaigns of the World Health Organization (WHO) along with World Health Day, World AIDS Day, World Malaria Day, World No Tobacco Day, World Hepatitis Day, World Tuberculosis Day and World Immunization Week. The day is organized mainly to generate awareness on the need for safe blood and blood products and to thank the voluntary donors for their contribution in donating blood for the cause of humanity. 

In our state, every year the State Blood Transfusion Council in association with Arunachal Pradesh State AIDS Control Society under the Directorate of Health Services organises the day with various activities like blood donation camps and felicitation of donors. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this year’s blood donation activities have been planned in a staggered manner and there will be more donor motivation campaigns through electronic, print and social media so that the social distancing norm is not compromised.
Do join us in these media campaigns to motivate more donors, which have become even more relevant during this lockdown amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. 
Author is Dy. Director (IEC), SBTC & APSACS

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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