Pakistan has  joined other countries worldwide to celebrate World Blood Donors Day today by hosting numerous events to raise awareness of the need for safe blood and blood products and to thank voluntary unpaid blood donors for their life-saving gifts of blood.

The theme for World Blood Donor Day 2011 is ‘More Blood, More Life.’ This theme reinforces the urgent need for more people all over the world to become life-savers by volunteering to donate blood regularly.

World Blood Donor Day is celebrated to honour voluntary blood donors; to create awareness about safe blood; and to highlight the importance of voluntary unremunerated blood donors as the first link in safe quality blood transfusion services.

An estimated 1.5 million bags of blood are transfused in Pakistan annually. The country’s existing blood transfusion services are hugely fragmented and rely heavily on family replacement donations.

Voluntary donations account for less than 10 per cent of the total blood collected in the country. Research has shown that donors who give blood of their own free will, without the expectation of payment, are the safest. However, a recent survey by WHO shows that out of 178 countries, only 54 have 100% voluntary, unpaid blood donations.