June 14, 2025 – World Blood Donor Day!
World Blood Donor Day is an international observance established in May 2005 during the 58th session of the World Health Assembly in Geneva, and is held annually on June 14.
The initiative to hold World Blood Donor Day on June 14 was put forward by four international organizations advocating for voluntary and unpaid blood donation: the WHO, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the International Federation of Blood Donor Organizations, and the International Society of Transfusion Medicine.
The slogan for the 2025 campaign is "Give blood, give plasma, share life, share often", emphasizing the importance of blood donation in saving lives, as well as cooperation and solidarity in this endeavor.
On this day, sincere gratitude is expressed to those who donate their blood and its components, which are essential for saving human lives. The day aims to draw attention to the need for regular voluntary blood donation.
Several categories of people who need donor blood are identified:
1. There are people who require blood products on a lifelong basis. These are primarily patients with hemophilia. If clotting factors are sufficient and the patient receives adequate supportive therapy from childhood, they are indistinguishable from ordinary people and lead a normal life. Without blood clotting factors, the lives of such patients are simply impossible.
2. Patients with oncological diseases need donor blood. Modern treatment of malignant tumors involves killing tumor cells. Along with tumor cells, normal hematopoiesis also stops for a period. It is during this period that the patient requires supportive therapy with donor blood components, particularly platelets, for which there is no substitute, and none is even theoretically foreseen in the near future.
3. Donor blood is needed by patients with surgical pathologies. These are people requiring joint prosthetics, and cardiac surgery patients. Surgical operations involve trauma to blood vessels and tissues, and the need to restore lost blood components.
4. Blood transfusions are often required by women during childbirth. A certain number of women during labor are always at risk of blood loss, which also needs to be competently compensated to preserve the lives of the mother and child.
Donating blood benefits not only those who need it but also the donor themselves. It is scientifically proven that as a result of blood withdrawal, the hematopoietic system is activated in the human body, immunity is stimulated, the burden on certain organs is reduced, etc. Donation, including unpaid donation, is a kind of hallmark of health not only for the donor but for society as a whole, an indicator of a high level of consciousness and humanism.
Donors of blood can be citizens of the Republic of Belarus, as well as foreign citizens and stateless persons permanently residing in the Republic of Belarus, aged 18 to 65, possessing full legal capacity, not suffering from diseases and not being in conditions where blood or its components donation is contraindicated.
When preparing for blood and its component donation, the following simple rules must be observed:
1. Lead a healthy lifestyle, observe personal and public hygiene rules.
2. Avoid casual sexual encounters that may lead to viral infections transmitted sexually (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 for 6 months from the date of the last procedure.
4. Do not donate if you have symptoms of malaise (runny nose, cough, headache, sore throat, elevated or lowered blood pressure), acute illnesses and/or exacerbation of chronic diseases, while taking medications (including for preventive purposes), or if you are overtired (after excessive physical exertion, night work, etc.).
5. Do not plan 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 donation, exclude fatty, fried, spicy, smoked foods, dairy products, eggs, butter, bananas, citrus fruits, and nuts from your diet.
7. On the morning of donation, have a "light" breakfast (sweet tea, jam, bread, rusks, dried bread rings, 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 on an empty stomach.
8. Refrain from taking antibiotics 10 days before 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 that voluntary and gratuitous blood donation to others is a sincere humane act!
State Institution "Rossonsky RCGE", May 2025