Make Blood Donation Part of Your Lifestyle: PMI

Jakarta (Antara) - The Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) encouraged people from all walks of life to incorporate blood donation into their lifestyles, because a single blood bag can save the lives of three people. "We want people to make blood donation activity a part of their inherent habits and lifestyles," Indonesian Red Cross Society official for health service Linda Lukitari Waseso said during the "Blood4Nation" campaign at the American Cultural Center on Wednesday. She noted that donating blood will help keep a person away from the risk of various diseases. "If one donates his or her blood three to four times a year, that person can be free from HIV, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and syphilis," Linda explained. To increase the blood donating habit, PMI is making every effort to provide facilities at a number of public areas, such as shopping malls, university campuses and blood donor cars in different locations. "Therefore, we hope the people will donate their blood not on certain occasions only, but continue to do so in the future in a consistent manner," she noted. According to her, blood donation is a voluntary activity and therefore PMI never sells a pouch of blood, while the cost of every blood bag is for service and management based on World Health Organization (WHO) standards. In accordance with the World Health Organization's international standards, PMI has a target to obtain 4.5 million bags of donated blood per year. Indonesia currently is on track to obtain approximately 3.5 million bags of donated blood annually, leaving it 1 million bags short of its target. Based on statistics from 2013, last year PMI received blood from 2,500,883 donors, with about 41 percent being first-time donors. "Indonesia usually experiences shortage of blood bag during the fasting month, so now PMI will also intensify blood donating campaign at mosques," she added. (*)