ONE hundred and fifty bottles of blood are required every day to satisfy the island’s blood needs, doctors said yesterday.
“Our blood needs are continually on the increase yet we must ensure that our blood banks’ supply never gets so low that we have to import blood from abroad,” Cyprus Blood Donation and Awareness Co-ordination Committee (SEAD) president Dr Nicos Pavlides said.
Speaking to reporters at a news conference to mark the start of next week’s annual blood donation week, Pavlides said greater awareness was needed in order to encourage more people to become blood donors.
“In 1977 [the year SEAD was introduced] our needs were only 12,500 bottles [per annum]. In 1999 it was 42,268 bottles, in 2000 this went up to 44,701 bottles, in 2001 to 43,316 bottles, in 2003 to 44,214 bottles, in 2005 to 47,505 bottles and in 2006 to 48,119 bottles,” Pavlides said.
“Because these needs are continuing to increase, and will continue to increase, our efforts need to be intensified every day.”
He said that the blood banks’ vital supply was used for scheduled procedures such as transfusions during surgery, as well as emergency cases.
Pavlides said: “Everyone has to realise that our blood concern is an issue that concerns us all, not just the patients, because anyone of us could need blood at any time… Sudden bleeding due to traffic accident injuries or working accidents, gastrointestinal bleeding, bleeding during pregnancy, complications in newborns that require immediate transfusions and many other reasons.”
The doctor said this was why the island’s hospitals blood banks always had to have a supply of all types of blood, and was why SEAK campaigned for more scheduled blood donations.
“We need more programmed blood donations to try and gather as much blood as we can,” he said.
Pavlides said a lot of people were indifferent about the importance of blood donation and used the excuse of a busy work schedule for not finding the time to donate blood when donations could also be made outside working hours thanks to SEAD volunteers.
The doctor added that although the island had never faced a severe blood shortage that required importing blood from abroad, it did go through low periods which meant scheduled operations were cancelled until a sufficient blood supply was collected.
“However, we don’t want operations cancelled. We want to get to the point that there is not only enough for emergency cases, but that chronic patients who need frequent blood transfusions also don’t have to have their procedures postponed,” he said.
Pavlides said the summer was a low period as schools were shut, which meant blood could not be collected from scheduled blood donation drives.
“Although we can have scheduled National Guard donations, we ask that this summer before people go on their holidays they stop by the hospital and donate some blood, which will be used to save lives,” he said.
