World Blood Donor Day 2023

Give blood, give plasma, share life, share often.

The slogan for 2023 World Blood Donor Day campaign, celebrated on 14 June 2023, is “Give blood, give plasma, share life, share often.” It focuses on patients requiring life-long transfusion support and underlines the role every single person can play, by giving the valuable gift of blood or plasma. It also highlights the importance of giving blood or plasma regularly to create a safe and sustainable supply of blood and blood products that can be always available, all over the world, so that all patients in need can receive timely treatment.

The objectives are to:

celebrate and thank individuals who donate blood and encourage more people to become new donors;
encourage people in good health to donate blood regularly, as often as is safe and possible, to transform the quality of life for transfusion dependent patients and help to build a secure blood supply in all countries in the world;
highlight the critical roles of voluntary non-remunerated regular blood and plasma donations in achieving universal access to safe blood products for all populations; and
mobilize support at national, regional and global levels among governments and development partners to invest in, strengthen and sustain national blood programmes.

The need for blood is universal, but access to blood is not. Blood shortages are acute in low- and middle-income countries.
Regular blood donations are needed all over the world to ensure individuals and communities have access to safe and quality-assured blood and blood products.
Every single blood or plasma donation is a precious lifesaving gift; regular donation is the key to building a safe and sustainable supply.
Wide participation of the population in regular blood and plasma donations ensure that everyone can access blood and plasma proteins when they need it.
All blood and plasma donors together provide a precious safeguard for patients and communities.
Ensuring the safety and well-being of blood and plasma donors is critical; it helps build commitment to regular donations.
Special thanks to blood and plasma donors on behalf of people who requires life-long transfusion or plasma protein therapies. We live because you give. Thank you!
Give blood, give plasma, share life, share often.

What can you do?

Everyone

Be a voluntary blood donor and an inspiration to others.
Commit to being a regular donor and give blood throughout the year.
Encourage your friends and family to become regular blood donors.
Volunteer with the blood service to reach out to members of your community, provide care to donors, and help manage blood donation sessions/drives.
Find out your blood type and register as a blood donor.
Participate in World Blood Donor Day with your social networks.

Ministries of Health

Organize and participate in (virtual) activities to celebrate World Blood Donor Day, promoting voluntary unpaid blood donation to the public, across government and to other sectors.
Acknowledge the crucial role of well-organized, committed voluntary, non-remunerated blood donors in ensuring a safe and sufficient blood supply during normal and emergency times.
Provide resources and infrastructure to facilitate voluntary blood donation.
Support the development of nationally coordinated blood transfusion services that provide equitable access to safe and quality assured blood transfusions for the whole population.
Put quality assurance systems in place for blood and blood products.
Speak to media about the importance of blood donation and the successes and challenges of your country in meeting national needs for blood.

National blood transfusion services

Disseminate information about the importance of giving blood.
Distribute campaign materials that you can download from the World Blood Donor Day campaign website.
Organize a virtual World Blood Donor Day celebration. This could include:
- Inviting prominent politicians, celebrities and sporting heroes to make videos or communicate on the importance of giving blood;
- Producing and disseminating promotional materials through your web site and social channels;
- setting up virtual visits of blood centres and inviting the public to learn about blood donation and transfusion; and
- promoting blood donation success stories and heroic blood donors to your media.
Improve the infrastructure for blood donation and blood donor care.
Focus attention on donor health and care and provide quality service to blood donors.

Who can give blood?

Most people can give blood if they are in good health. There are some basic requirements one need to fulfill in order to become a blood donor. Below are some basic eligibility guidelines:

Age

You are aged between 18 and 65.

In some countries national legislation permits 16–17 year-olds to donate provided that they fulfil the physical and hematological criteria required and that appropriate consent is obtained.
In some countries, regular donors over the age of 65 may be accepted at the discretion of the responsible physician. The upper age limit in some countries are 60.

Weight

You weigh at least 50 kg.

In some countries, donors of whole blood donations should weigh at least 45 kg to donate 350 ml ± 10%.

Health

You must be in good health at the time you donate.

You cannot donate if you have a cold, flu, sore throat, cold sore, stomach bug or any other infection.

If you have recently had a tattoo or body piercing you cannot donate for 6 months from the date of the procedure. If the body piercing was performed by a registered health professional and any inflammation has settled completely, you can donate blood after 12 hours.

If you have visited the dentist for a minor procedure you must wait 24 hours before donating; for major work wait a month.

You must not donate blood If you do not meet the minimum haemoglobin level for blood donation:

A test will be administered at the donation site. In many countries, a haemoglobin level of not less than 12.0 g/dl for females and not less than 13.0 g/dl for males as the threshold.

Travel

Travel to areas where mosquito-borne infections are endemic, e.g. malaria, dengue and Zika virus infections, may result in a temporary deferral.

Many countries also implemented the policy to defer blood donors with a history of travel or residence for defined cumulative exposure periods in specified countries or areas, as a measure to reduce the risk of transmitting variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) by blood transfusion.

Behaviours

You must not give blood:

If you engaged in “at risk” sexual activity in the past 12 months
Individuals with behaviours below will be deferred permanently:
Have ever had a positive test for HIV (AIDS virus)
Have ever injected recreational drugs.

In the national blood donor selection guidelines, there are more behavior eligibility criteria. Criteria could be different in different countries.

Pregnancy and breastfeeding

Following pregnancy, the deferral period should last as many months as the duration of the pregnancy.

It is not advisable to donate blood while breast-feeding. Following childbirth, the deferral period is at least 9 months (as for pregnancy) and until 3 months after your baby is significantly weaned (i.e. getting most of his/her nutrition from solids or bottle feeding).

More information on eligibility to donate

National eligibility guidelines must be followed when people donate blood in the blood service in specific countries. To find out whether any health conditions, medications, professions or travel history to could affect your ability to give blood, please search for detailed information in the national/local blood services.