National Blood Bank

Resource Centre

Blood donation is a gift of life that improves health and reduces premature mortality but many patients in need of blood transfusion do not have timely access to safe blood. An adequate and sustainable supply of safe blood can be assured by non-remunerated voluntary and unpaid blood donors as the rate of transfusion transmissible infection is lowest among them. However, in developing countries, there is a great challenge of availing safe and adequate blood
Globally, around 112.5 million units of donated blood are collected every year. Nearly half of these are collected in high-income countries and the average blood donation rate is more than 9 times greater in high-income countries than in low-income countries. Particularly, Sub-Saharan Africa faces great challenges not only in the shortage of blood but also in the safety of blood.