Blood donation
Who Needs Donor Blood?
There are several categories of people who require donor blood.
Some individuals need blood products on a lifelong basis. This primarily includes patients with hemophilia. If clotting factors are sufficient and the patient receives adequate supportive therapy from childhood, they can live a normal life, indistinguishable from others. Without blood clotting factors, the lives of such patients are simply impossible.
Patients with oncological diseases require donor blood. Modern treatment for malignant tumors involves destroying tumor cells. This process temporarily halts normal blood formation. During this period, patients need supportive therapy with donor blood components, particularly platelets, for which there is no substitute, and none is even theoretically foreseen in the near future.
Donor blood is needed by patients with surgical conditions. This includes individuals requiring joint replacement and patients undergoing cardiac surgery. Surgical operations involve trauma to blood vessels and tissues, necessitating the restoration of lost blood components.
Blood transfusions are often required by women during childbirth. A certain number of women face the risk of blood loss during labor, which must be adequately compensated to preserve the lives of both mother and child.
Donating blood benefits not only those who need it but also the donor. It is scientifically proven that blood withdrawal activates the hematopoietic system and stimulates immunity, reducing the burden on certain organs, among other effects. Donation, including unpaid donation, is a testament to the health of both the donor and society as a whole, indicating a high level of awareness and humanism.
Blood donors can be citizens of the Republic of Belarus, as well as foreign citizens and stateless persons permanently residing in the Republic of Belarus, aged eighteen to sixty years, possessing full legal capacity, and not suffering from diseases or conditions that contraindicate blood or blood component donation.
How to Prepare for Blood and Blood Component Donation
When preparing for blood and blood component donation, the following simple rules must be observed:
1. Lead a healthy lifestyle, observe personal and public hygiene rules.
2. Avoid casual sexual contacts that may lead to viral sexually transmitted infections (Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, other viral hepatitis with parenteral transmission, syphilis, HIV (AIDS)).
3. Avoid cosmetic procedures such as tattoos, piercings, implants, scarification, tongue splitting, etc., or refrain from donating blood for 6 months from the date of the last procedure.
4. Do not donate blood if you have symptoms of malaise (runny nose, cough, headache, sore throat, elevated or lowered blood pressure), acute and/or exacerbation of chronic diseases, are taking medications (including for preventive purposes), or are in a state of overexertion (after excessive physical exertion, night work, etc.).
5. Do not plan blood donation immediately before exams, competitions, during intensive work periods, before working in hot shops, or at night.
6. On the day before and on the day of blood donation, exclude fatty, fried, spicy, smoked foods, dairy products, eggs, butter, bananas, citrus fruits, and nuts from your diet.
7. Have a "light" breakfast on the morning of blood donation (sweet tea, jam, bread, rusks, dried biscuits, boiled cereals, pasta with water without butter, steamed fish, juices, fruit drinks, compotes, mineral water, vegetables, fruits (except citrus fruits and bananas)). It is not recommended to donate blood on an empty stomach.
8. Refrain from taking antibiotics 10 days before blood donation, salicylates and analgesics 5 days before, alcoholic and low-alcohol beverages and beer 2 days before, and smoking 2 hours before.
9. Blood and blood component donors are strictly prohibited from using narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, their analogues, toxic or other intoxicating substances.
Do not remain indifferent! Remember, blood donation is an honorable deed that will save someone's life and health.
State Institution "Rassonsky RTCGE", 2023