KUWAIT: There have recently been a number of appeals broadcast on various local media for donors with rare blood types to give blood to the Kuwait Central Blood Bank (KCBB) , which turned to local TV and radio stations, even appealing via SMS messages, to request donors to come forward to help provide life-saving blood transfusions. Dr Rana Abdulrazzaq, the KCBB's Director of Medical and Donor Affairs, said that while the blood bank's overall reserve is acceptable, with a little over 1,000 units of blood available for transfusion, "that doesn't mean that we're not short of certain rare blood types, especially O-Negative.

Dr. Abdulrazzaq revealed that O-Negative is the blood type most commonly used, especially in cases such as those involving newborn babies requiring blood transfusions and in emergency cases where the patient's blood type is unknown, being safe type for all recipients. However, she said, with only 10 percent in any population being O-Negative, it is hard to obtain sufficient supplies of this blood type, with regular O-Negative donors being unfortunately rare.

Dr. Abdulrazzaq said that the need for a concerted drive for more rare blood type donors first became evident with an increasing number of messages from worried parents of children in need of regular, life-saving blood transfusions. The KCBB needs at least 250 donors per day to cover its requirements for blood and derivatives such as plasma, but unfortunately the actual numbers aren't even close to satisfying local hospitals' needs.

The senior KCBB official said that thanks to all the invaluable help that the blood bank received from parents, as well as appeals broadcast over a number of radio stations, it was now closer to securing enough donors with other rare blood types than it was recently, although the number of O-Negative donors was still woefully small. She asserted that blood stock levels are usually a good indication of how well-educated and responsible a community's members are towards each other and towards those in need
of blood transfusions. Since blood is an organ, she explained, it is internationally illegal to trade in it as a commodity, making voluntary donors the only source.

Dr. Abdulrazzaq said that the KCBB meets its responsibility to spread awareness in the community of the critical nature of this issue and the dangers of neglecting such a moral duty through its regular blood donation campaigns, which it usually carries out in coordination with other organizations and groups.

One of the key factors in keeping people coming back as regular donors is making sure that they have a good experience while donating blood," she explained.

Dr. Abdulrazzaq concluded by revealing that this year's World Blood Donors' Day on June 14, has a theme of 'New Blood For the World,' in an attempt to recruit more young people to come forward as regular donors and to spread the culture of giving blood as a duty for all so that young people can become more involved. - Kuwait Times