Assam has seen a “significant” rise in blood donation this year compared to 2021-22.
Officials told The Telegraph on Monday that Assam had collected 68,130 blood units through voluntary blood donation (VBD) between April and August last year.
“But the collection for the same five-month period this year went up to 94,369 blood units, a significant rise of 26,239 blood units,” an official said, adding the number of blood donation camps held between April and August went up to 297 this year from 198 camps last year.
The country-wide voluntary blood donation drive —Raktdaan Amrit Mahotsav — under the Union health ministry from September 17 to October 1 to help increase awareness about regular voluntary blood donation without remuneration also saw a donation of 5,311 blood units in Assam.
The objective of the mahotsav was to “ensure blood or its components were easily available, accessible, affordable and safe”. More than 2.5 lakh people voluntarily donated blood under the nationwide drive.
Assam State Blood Transfusion Council (ASBTC) director Pomi Baruah attributed this significant rise to various government steps to increase voluntary donation across the state under the aegis of the ASBTC.
These steps included ASBTC providing mobile blood donation vans in district hospitals and medical colleges. These vans, having facilities for two donors each, move across far-flung rural areas and conduct camps.
All government blood centres too “prepare” a VBD camp schedule (preferably every alternate days) with various organisations linked to blood donation.
“Then there is mass awareness campaign in various educational institutions by providing an amount of Rs 10,000 as one-time grant for expenses associated with a camp which has also helped in significant rise in voluntary blood donation. VBD is the foundation for a safe and quality blood,” Baruah said.
“This is a great achievement,” ASBTC director Baruah said.