ABSTRACT
For patients suffering from life threaten conditions as well as those under maternal and prenatal care, blood is a vital resource. Pakistan has an additional burden because of a high number of thalassemia patients. This problem is magnified due to a lack of blood donors. According to recent estimates, only 28 out of 10,000 people donate blood. Out of these, only 11 percent of the donations are by people who don’t have a friend or family in immediate need.
According to Dr Fauzia Saeed, Blood Bank in charge at the Punjab Red Crescent Society, ‘People here don’t understand that donating blood is, in fact, beneficial for one’s overall health.’
INTRODUCTION
Background
Blood donation and transfusion in Pakistan are mostly based on demand driven. When blood is needed, family and friends are mobilized. In general, upscale and medium-size hospitals have their own blood banks to cater to their patients’ needs. There are some private blood banks but they offer varying standards of quality. For smaller cities and rural areas, the options are limited. A majority of tehsil and district headquarters hospitals do not have blood banks. Families of patients mostly procure blood from blood banks outside of these areas. In most cases, it is transported without maintaining a cold chain. Some blood banks are also being operated by NGOs, mostly to cater to thalassemia and/or cancer patients
Problem
In Pakistan, misconceptions about blood donation contribute to low donor interest. People lack awareness. Mothers forbid their children from donating blood even if they are young, healthy, and meet the requirements. They think donating blood will weaken them.
Purpose
The purpose of this report is to aware that people about advantages of blood donations, who don’t understand that donating blood is in fact beneficial for you people overall health.
Also, aware the people that those who donate blood why they donate? and those who do not donate blood why they don’t donate blood? why Pakistan is deficient in blood donors.
METHODOLOGY
I adopted both qualitative and quantitative data to analyze the problem. I have extracted data from Blood Banks, questionnaires and Interviews from different areas of Pakistan.
Questionnaires
To identify Lack of Blood Donors in Pakistan. Both qualitative and quantitative method were used, a survey was conducted which was consist of 20 questions regarding to the problem. Undergraduate students from different Universities e.g. BZU Multan, Gift University Gujranwala, UET Lahore, NUST university Islamabad and Namal Institute Mianwali participated. From online Google form the questionnaire was made. Microsoft Excel was used for results and analysis.
Interviews
It is the method of investigating the people regarding the problem through interviews, common discussion etc. I got the results related to the problem of Lack of Blood Donors in Pakistan.
From my result people who donate blood almost 51.2% wants to helps other in the form of that they want to save their lives and 14.6% because they have rare Blood group. Allah have given a reward to them that they have rare Blood group. So, in this regard they want to help others. Also, in Islam Blood donation is charity. 12.2% people donate blood because they know there is very difficult time on a person which is in need of blood. 14.6% people donate Blood because they are encouraged from their family and Friends.
Result shows that the People who donated blood gave almost 1 or 2 times. Data shows 50% people donate blood only one time. 25% donate two times. 15.6% donate three times. Only 9.4% people are those who donate blood 4 or more times. This result also shows the deficiency of Blood Donors in Pakistan. Although there should be minimum three months difference but after three months people thought that there might be some more difference because I can unwell. So, in this misconception there is lack of blood donors.
My survey result shows the major cause in this portion that why most of the people don’t donate Blood. We know that giving blood for the first time can be nerve-racking, especially if you’re afraid of needles. In fact, one of the main reasons 14.5% people say they’ve never given blood or platelets, is because they’re afraid of needles. 2 in 10 young people aged 18 to 24 said they were too busy, even though nearly three-quarters said everyone who met blood donation criteria should give blood. Research ([1] article: Health BBC News). Survey’s data also shows that 10.9% people don’t donate Blood because they are too busy. One more reason which is as same as above that 12.7% thought It’s a hassle to arrange a time and place to donate Blood because in present era every person thought that their time is more important than the life of other person. 12.7% don’t donate Blood because they are not allowed to give blood for some medical reasons. Pregnancy and recent childbirth rule one out as a blood donor. The safety of donating blood during and shortly after pregnancy has not been fully established. There may be medical risks to the mother and baby during this time. Research ([2] article: Science the register). Data shows 25.5% don’t donate blood because they thought that they feel unwell after donating Blood. This might be misconception but in many cases this problem lies. the donor may experience side reactions during or after the donation: weakness, dizziness, cold sweat, fainting and other symptoms. Research ([3] article: North Estonia Medical Centre). Data shows that 5.5% don’t donate because of some religious issues. And 1.8% people don’t donate they are already very weak and they thought that they become weaker after donating the blood. 16.4% people are such that they don’t want to share the reason that why they don’t donate Blood.
It is also a type of deficiency of Blood donors because data shows that 81.6% people say that under 16-year old children cannot donate blood. Although above 16-year-old can donate blood to under 16-year-old children. So, there might be some chance of deficiency of blood donors.
In this result data shows the above reason about lack of Blood Donors due to medical reasons. This reason is valid because there are many diseased persons who can’t donate blood. Research ([4] article: Can I Give Blood, Even Though I Have Diabetes? Eveyday.com (If a person has diabetes and want to donate blood, it’s generally safe for you to do so. People with type 1 and type 2 diabetes are eligible to give blood donations. You should have your condition under control and be in otherwise good health before you donate blood). 87.4% people have responds that person who has diabetes or high blood pressure can’t donate blood. This shows the negativity of people about blood donation. Smoking cigarettes in and of itself doesn’t disqualify you from donating blood. If you smoke and you want to donate blood, plan to refrain from smoking on the day of your appointment — both before your appointment and for three hours afterward. Smoking before your appointment can lead to an increase in blood pressure. Research ([5] article: Smoker can donate Blood? Healthline.com. There is also a reason that the receivers have to be paid money to donors. It is a big issue for poor people because they can’t pay. Survey’s data shows that 20.7% people say that blood receivers have to be paid. 33.3% responders say that they don’t know about this reason. Here is the one major issue discuss above that in the present era people are very busy. Busy people don’t donate blood for this reason. 47.1% responders say that in blood donation process there is a waste of 20 minutes. 31% people say that there is a waste of 40 minutes to 1 hour. F
Conclusion
The Programme has been able to establish strong bonds with the stakeholders from the entire country. These include the technical level of blood bank laboratory staff, the public health administrations of provinces, representatives of the regulatory bodies for medical sciences and blood transfusion, but also the broad spectrum of private organizations, many of which are dealing with the heaviest burden for the BTS in the country, represented by thalassaemia patients. The SBTP has been able to bring the stakeholders on a joint platform (e.g. concerning VNRBD, MIS, the basic design of RBC and HBB, and recently also concerning legislation and BTA’s). The interaction with the different stakeholders has deepened the SMTP’s understanding of the existing “diversity” in terms of structures, technology, human resource capacity and overall organization. Research [6] article: Blood Transfusion ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.