Within the celebration the World Blood Donor Day, which comes this year under the theme ‘Safe blood for all’, the Ministry of Health (MOH) represented by the Department of Blood Banks Services held an event today (Monday) to honor the blood donors from individuals and contributing establishments that made donation campaigns successful.

The celebration ceremony was held at Grand Millennium hotel under the auspices of H.E. Ali Talib Al Hinai, MOH’s Undersecretary for Planning Affairs, with the presence of number of their Excellencies and senior officials, in addition to representatives of the authorities and organizations that contributed in the success of blood donation drives.

The ceremony included a speech of Dr. Zainab Salim Al Oraimi, Director of the Blood Banks Services pointed out that the theme of this year underlines the significance of accessing to affordable and timely supplies of safe and quality-assured blood and blood products, as an integral part of universal health coverage and a key component of effective health systems.

BBS Director highlighted the medical achievements resulting from the ongoing blood donation including liver transplant operations, fetus blood transfusions, as well as bone marrow transplants and surgical heart operations.

On this regard, (11) liver transplant operations were successfully performed, noting that a liver transplant operation requires the provision of (24) platelets, (60) plasma unit, and (40) units of red blood cells.

Dr. Al Oraimi added that number of (41) surgeries were performed for children after the campaign run by the National Heart Center on last September. The Ministry as well has recently hold a record in Guinness World Records on the National Blood Donation Initiative.

Moreover, blood banks services in the Sultanate have received considerable attention from the MOH highlighting that the in its effort to upgrade the safety of blood, a DNA Screening technology for blood donor has been recently introduced to detect hepatitis B & C, and HIV/AIDS.

The honoring ceremony displayed presentations on the “Safe blood for all” in addition to the project named “Qatrat Hayat”.

At the end of the ceremony, the patron of the event honored (178) blood donors including donors with rare blood groups and platelet, in addition to the outstanding donor.

The honoring further included  (55) public, private, and non-governmental organizations, authorities, and individuals engaged in blood donations campaigns, in addition to the outstanding coordinators of blood donation campaigns and the sub-blood banks in the Sultanate’s different Governorates, as well the winners of the  “Qatrat Hayat” project from the scout troops.  

It is noted that every year, on 14 June, countries around the world celebrate World Blood Donor Day. The event serves to thank voluntary blood donors and to raise awareness of the need for regular blood donations.