Belize's Deputy Director of Health Services, Dr. Jorge Polanco says the country has an adequate supply of blood, but despite that assurance, we often get folks walking in to our newsroom, making public pleas for blood.
Indeed, the country's blood bank has been taxed considerably by increases in violent crimes and road accidents, and without a steady supply of blood donations coming from voluntary donors, the bank is bound to go broke.
With that in mind, the Pan American Health Organization, and the World Health Organization in collaboration with the Belize Blood Transfusion Services tried to change that equation today, by holding a blood drive in the upscale Coney drive neighborhood.
The drive aims to "create awareness and encourage voluntary blood donation from those who live and conduct business in the area".
We found out more:
Dr. Jorge Polanco - Deputy Director of Health Services, Ministry of Health
"The blood supply in the country is confirmed at about 10% from voluntary donations. The other 90% is from what we call the replacement donor system. What that means is that people would go to the blood bank and donate blood replacing the blood that a relative or a friend would have used. That has worked for Belize, but we want to reduce that proportion of replacement donors and increase the volunteers. I say so because globally, it has been proven that voluntary blood donors pose less risk for contaminated blood. By being a voluntary blood donor, that implies that the individual is responsible. He lives a sexually responsible life. And by that, I mean that the risk of having sexually transmitted infections is decreased. He lives a life in such ways that the prevalence in this person for - let us say - diabetes or hypertension would be lower. Overall, they try to maintain a healthy life style simply because they are aware that that they are volunteer blood donors, and that the people would depend on a safe blood."
Jim McFadzean
"Now I know that there has been some case where people with rare blood types have been unable - have had difficulty - to get that kind of supply when needed. How do you deal with these very rare blood types? And where are we at in terms of approaching the level where we can encourage people with those very rare blood types to come in and make that type of donation?"
Dr. Jorge Polanco
"What you say is true. It is also a reality in Belize. That's one other reason why we want to increase that proportion of volunteers to see if we would catch those rare blood types because we do have those emergencies when a person would be involved - let us say - in a an emergency - a traffic accident or a gunshot - and he has rare blood type, that's where the difficulty comes in."
On hand to give support for the Blood drive today, was the wife of Prime Minister Dean Barrow, Mrs. Kim Simplis-Barrow who donated to the cause, and told Seven News, It's not the first time she's given "the gift of life"!
Lady Kim Simplis - Barrow - Wife of The Prime Minister
"As we all know, blood saves lives. I mean, that is the number one thing. Unfortunately, in Belize today, we don't have many people donating blood. And we want to encourage more and more people to give blood. Why? Because it saves lives. It is very critical. We hear about many emergency accidents, and people need blood immediately. And if we don't have blood in the blood banks, then we have a problem. So, I'm happy to be a part of this initiative, encouraging people to donate blood."
Today's blood drive, included free checks on body mass index, glucose and blood pressure levels. Voluntary donors can only give blood every three months and must be between the ages of 18 and 65. The blood type highest in demand is O+.
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