There are many misconceptions related to blood donations among the people in the country, with many complaining about headaches after doing the good deed.

To answer this query, we had Dr Abdul Bari, the chief executive officer of the Indus Hospital and Health Network in our sehri transmission in Ramazan.

“You have to lay on the bed for around 10 to 15 minutes after donating the blood as a volume of your blood has gone out, bringing changes to your body. You can have a headache because of this,” he said.

An increase of 10.7 million blood donations from voluntary unpaid donors has been reported from 2008 to 2018, according to the World Health Organization. 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.

Bari went on to add that organised blood banks and centres follow a protocol and provide the donor fluid like juice to boost energy. If such a practice was followed then the donor would not have headaches, he added.

But the health specialist warned that any person would have a headache after suddenly rising from bed after donating blood.

He called for following the safety protocol. When asked, he said: “Every healthy person can donate blood every four months.”

The protocol also includes age as people from 18 years to 60 years can donate blood, the Indus Hospital CEO stated and added that some criteria include whether the person was infected or not.

“All tests are conducted to ensure the blood given to the patient is safe,” he said.