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20 years of celebrating giving: thank you blood donors!
On World Blood Donor Day, celebrated on 14 June 2024, WHO, its partners and communities across the world will unite behind the theme: 20 years of celebrating giving: thank you blood donors!
The 20th anniversary of World Blood Donor Day is an excellent and timely opportunity to thank blood donors across the world for their life-saving donations over the years and honour the profound impact on both patients and donors. It is also a timely moment to address continued challenges, and accelerate progress towards a future where safe blood transfusion is universally accessible.
The objectives of the campaign:
- thank and recognize the millions of voluntary blood donors who have contributed to the health and well-being of millions of people around the world.
- showcase the achievements and challenges of national blood programmes and share best practices and lessons learned.
- highlight the continuous need for regular, unpaid blood donation to achieve universal access to safe blood transfusion.
- promote a culture of regular blood donation among young people and the general public and increase the diversity and sustainability of the blood donor pool.
Key facts
- Of the 118.5 million blood donations collected globally, 40% of these are collected in high-income countries, home to 16% of the world’s population.
- In low-income countries, up to 54 % of blood transfusions are given to children under 5 years of age; whereas in high-income countries, the most frequently transfused patient group is over 60 years of age, accounting for up to 76% of all transfusions.
- Based on samples of 1000 people, the blood donation rate is 31.5 donations in high-income countries, 16.4 donations in upper-middle-income countries, 6.6 donations in lower-middle-income countries and 5.0 donations in low-income countries.
- An increase of 10.7 million blood donations from voluntary unpaid donors has been reported from 2008 to 2018. In total, 79 countries collect over 90% of their blood supply from voluntary unpaid blood donors; however, 54 countries collect more than 50% of their blood supply from family/replacement or paid donors.
- Only 56 of 171 reporting countries produce plasma-derived medicinal products (PDMP) through the fractionation of plasma collected in the reporting countries. A total of 91 countries reported that all PDMP are imported, 16 countries reported that no PDMP were used during the reporting period, and 8 countries did not respond to the question.
- The volume of plasma for fractionation per 1000 population varied considerably between the 45 reporting countries, ranging from 0.1 to 52.6 litres, with a median of 5.2 litres.
Key messages
- Safe blood saves lives.
- Blood is needed by women with complications during pregnancy and childbirth, children with severe anaemia, often resulting from malaria or malnutrition, accident victims and surgical and cancer patients.
- Regular blood donation by a sufficient number of healthy people is needed to ensure that blood will always be available whenever and wherever it is needed.
- While the need for blood is universal, access to blood is not. Blood shortages are acute in low- and middle-income countries.
- 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.
- Ensuring the safety and well-being of blood and plasma donors is critical; it helps build commitment to regular donations.
- Thank you, blood donors. Your selfless donations have had a profound impact on the lives and well-being of hundreds of millions of people, as well as their families and communities across the world.
What you can 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.
National blood policy and organization
Blood transfusion saves lives and improves health, but many patients requiring transfusion do not have timely access to safe blood. Providing safe and adequate blood should be an integral part of every country’s national health care policy and infrastructure.
WHO recommends that all activities related to blood collection, testing, processing, storage and distribution be coordinated at the national level through effective organization and integrated blood supply networks. The national blood system should be governed by national blood policy and legislative framework to promote uniform implementation of standards and consistency in the quality and safety of blood and blood products.
In 2018, 73 % of reporting countries, or 125 out of 171, had a national blood policy. Overall, 66% of reporting countries, or 113 out of 171, have specific legislation covering the safety and quality of blood transfusion, including:
- 79% of high-income countries
- 63% of middle-income countries
- 39% of low-income countries.
Blood supply
About 118.54 million blood donations are collected worldwide. 40% of these are collected in high-income countries, home to 16 % of the world’s population.
About 13 300 blood centres in 169 countries report collecting a total of 106 million donations. Collections at blood centres vary according to income group. The median annual donations per blood centre is 1 300 in the low-income countries, 4 400 in lower-middle-income countries and 9 300 in upper-middle-income countries, as compared to 25 700 in high-income countries.
There is a marked difference in the level of access to blood between low- and high-income countries. The whole blood donation rate is an indicator for the general availability of blood in a country. The median blood donation rate in high-income countries is 31.5 donations per 1000 people. This compares with 16.4 donations per 1000 people in upper-middle-income countries, 6.6 donations per 1000 people in lower-middle-income countries, and 5.0 donations per 1000 people in low-income countries.
60 countries report collecting fewer than 10 donations per 1000 people. Of these, 34 countries are in the WHO African Region, four in the WHO Region of the Americas, four in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean region, four in the WHO European Region, five in the WHO South-Eastern Asia Region, and nine in the WHO Western Pacific Region. All are low- or middle-income countries.
Blood donors
Age and gender of blood donors
Data about the gender profile of blood donors show that globally 33% of blood donations are given by women, although this ranges widely. In 15 of the 113 reporting countries, less than 10% of donations are given by female donors.
The age profile of blood donors shows that, proportionally, more young people donate blood in low- and middle-income countries than in high-income countries. Demographic information of blood donors is important for formulating and monitoring recruitment strategies.
Types of blood donors
There are 3 types of blood donors:
- voluntary unpaid
- family/replacement
- paid.
An adequate and reliable supply of safe blood can be assured by a stable base of regular, voluntary, unpaid blood donors. These donors are also the safest group of donors as the prevalence of bloodborne infections is lowest among this group. World Health Assembly resolution WHA63.12 urges all Member States to develop national blood systems based on voluntary unpaid donations and to work towards the goal of self-sufficiency.
Data reported to WHO shows significant increases of voluntary unpaid blood donations in low- and middle-income countries:
- An increase of 10.7 million blood donations from voluntary unpaid donors from 2008 to 2018 has been reported by 119 countries. The highest increase of voluntary unpaid blood donations is in the South-East Asia Region (127%) followed by the Region of the Americas (81%) and Africa (81%). The maximum increase in absolute numbers was reported in the Western Pacific Region (4.15 million donations), followed by South-East Asia (3.05 million) and Africa (1.53 million donations).
- 79 countries collect more than 90% of their blood supply from voluntary unpaid blood donations (38 high-income countries, 33 middle-income countries and eight low-income countries). This includes 64 countries with 100% (or more than 99%) of their blood supply from voluntary unpaid blood donors.
- In 54 countries, more than 50% of the blood supply is still dependent on family/replacement and paid blood donors (eight high-income countries, 36 middle-income countries and 10 low-income countries).
Blood screening
WHO recommends that all blood donations should be screened for infections prior to use. Screening for HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and syphilis should be mandatory. Blood screening should be performed according to quality system requirements. Of reporting countries, 10 are not able to screen all donated blood for one or more of the above infections.
99.8% of the donations in high-income countries and 99.9% in upper-middle-income countries are screened following basic quality procedures, as compared to 83% in lower-middle-income countries and 76 % in low-income countries. The prevalence of transfusion-transmissible infections in blood donations in high-income countries is considerably lower than in low- and middle-income countries (Table 1).
Table 1. Prevalence of transfusion-transmissible infections in blood donations (Median, Interquartile range (IQR)), by income groups
| HIV | HBV | HCV | Syphilis | ||
| High-income countries | 0.002% | 0.02% | 0.007% | 0.02% | |
| (<0.001% – 0.01%) | (0.005% – 0.12%) | (0.002% – 0.06%) | (0.003% –0.12%) | ||
| Upper middle-income countries | 0.10% | 0.29% | 0.19% | 0.35% | |
| (0.03% – 0.23%) | (0.13% – 0.62%) | (0.07% – 0.36%) | (0.13% –1.10%) | ||
| Lower middle-income countries | 0.19% | 1.70% | 0.38% | 0.69% | |
| (0.04% – 0.62%) | (0.70% – 4.74%) | (0.12% –0.99%) | (0.19% – 1.38%) | ||
| Low-income countries | 0.70% | 2.81% | 1.00% | 0.90% | |
| (0.28% – 1.60%) | (2.00% – 6.02%) | (0.50% – 1.67%) | (0.60% – 1.81%) |
These differences reflect the variation in prevalence among population who are eligible to donate blood, the type of donors (such as voluntary unpaid blood donors from lower risk populations) and the effectiveness of the system of educating and selecting donors.
Blood processing
Blood collected in an anticoagulant can be stored and transfused to a patient in an unmodified state. This is known as ‘whole blood’ transfusion. However, blood can be used more effectively if it is processed into components, such as red cell concentrates, platelet concentrates, plasma and cryoprecipitate. In this way, it can meet the needs of more than one patient.
The capacity to provide patients with the different blood components they require is still limited in low-income countries: 38% of the blood collected in low-income countries is separated into components, 75% in lower-middle-income countries, 96% in upper-middle-income countries, and 96% in high-income countries.
Supply of plasma-derived medicinal products (PDMP)
World Health Assembly resolution WHA63.12 urges Member States to establish, implement and support nationally coordinated, efficiently managed and sustainable blood and plasma programmes, according to the availability of resources, with the aim of achieving self-sufficiency. It is the responsibility of individual governments to ensure sufficient and equitable supply of plasma-derived medicinal products, namely immunoglobulins and coagulation factors, which are needed to prevent and treat a variety of serious conditions that occur worldwide.
Only 56 of 171 reporting countries produce plasma-derived medicinal products (PDMP) through the fractionation of plasma collected in the reporting country. A total of 91 countries reported that all PDMP are imported, 16 countries reported that no PDMP were used during the reporting period, and 8 countries did not respond to the question.
Around 19 million litres of plasma from 45 reporting countries was fractionated for the production of PDMP during the year. This includes around 31% of plasma recovered from the whole blood donations. The volume of plasma for fractionation (and processing for PDMPs) per 1000 population varied considerably between the reporting countries, ranging from 0.1 to 52.6 litres, with a median of 5.2 litres.
Clinical use of blood
Unnecessary transfusions and unsafe transfusion practices expose patients to the risk of serious adverse transfusion reactions and transfusion-transmissible infections. Unnecessary transfusions also reduce the availability of blood products for patients who are in need.
WHO recommends the development of systems, such as hospital transfusion committees and haemovigilance, to monitor and improve the safety of transfusion processes. In this regard:
- 128 countries have national guidelines on the appropriate clinical use of blood: 32 countries in the African region (74% of reporting countries in the region), 23 in the Americas (70%), 12 in the Eastern Mediterranean (67%), 33 in Europe (80%), 9 in the South East Asia (90%), and 19 in the Western Pacific (76%).
- Transfusion committees are present in 48% of the hospitals performing transfusions: 62% in hospitals in high-income countries, 35% in upper-middle-income countries, 31 in lower-middle-income countries and 25% in low-income countries.
- Systems for reporting adverse transfusion events are present in 55% of the hospitals performing transfusions: 74% in hospitals in high-income countries, 35% in upper-middle-income countries, 22% in lower-middle-income countries and 18% in low-income countries,
- 49% of reporting countries have a haemovigilance system. The European region has the highest percentage of countries with haemovigilance systems (81%), followed by the Western Pacific (50%), the Eastern Mediterranean (50%), Africa (40%), South-East Asia (40%), and the Americas (21%).
Blood transfusions
There are great variations between countries in terms of age distribution of transfused patients. For example, in high-income countries, the most frequently transfused patient group is over 60 years of age, which accounts for up to 76% of all transfusions. In low-income countries, up to 54% of transfusions are for children under the age of 5 years.
In high-income countries, transfusion is most commonly used for supportive care in cardiovascular surgery, transplant surgery, massive trauma, and therapy for solid and haematological malignancies. In low- and middle-income countries it is used more often to manage pregnancy-related complications and severe childhood anaemia.
