The FINANCIAL — Every 1 in 3 needs blood and every 1 in 30 gives blood in the world.
In Georgia the situation is quite dramatic as well. The country has serious problems due to Georgians’ mentality in regards to blood donation, as the vast majority of them never want to donate blood, specialists worry.
“We have one donor who has given 80 litres of blood in his life, but he is the only exception in our clinic and I think in Georgia as well,” Giorgi Dolidze, Director of Medical Issues at the Georgian National Blood Bank, told The FINANCIAL.
Georgia has problems in terms of donating blood and in the adequate use of blood as well. The low education of medical staff at clinics resulted in the high use of red blood cells (erythrocytes) and the opposite, low use of plasma, specialists say.
“After donation the blood is typically separated into parts, usually red blood cells and plasma, since most recipients need only a specific component for transfusions. But usually doctors are too lazy to thoroughly examine a patient’s situation and they automatically transfuse erythrocytes. There are special guidelines about blood transfusions but in Georgia few clinics abide by them,” said Levan Avalishvili, Director of Joen Medical Centre.
Surprisingly enough, the Georgian National Blood Bank has a special discount for plasma on official secular and religious holidays. They offer a 30 percent discount only for plasma.
“Use of plasma is very low in the country,” Dolidze said. “It has several reasons and the main one is low education of medical staff. Every component of blood has its special destination, but as red blood cells are the most frequently used component, doctors transfuse them in any case of blood needed. It’s a very irresponsible attitude. Plasma has a high energy value and it’s very helpful for specific diseases including syphilis.”
“Our discount is kind of an encouragement and incentive for doctors to transfuse more plasma. And I can say that it brings quite good results,” he added.
The regions of Georgia have the same problem. The country has quite a large deficit of red blood cells, but the clinic has storage of 200 litres of plasma as demand for it is very low,” said Iakob Chighladze, Director of Gori Medical Preparations.
Is spite of problems related to the use of plasma, specialists say that the main problem of blood donation is the mentality of Georgians. According to The World Health Organization (WHO), in a country where medicine is developed, the annual number of donations has to be at least 1 percent of the whole population. 2-2.5 percent is a normal amount. Georgia’s population totals about 4 million people and the number of donations is about 30,000-35,000. The WHO set a goal in 1997 for all blood donations to come from unpaid volunteer donors and in most developed countries blood donors are unpaid volunteers who give blood for a community supply. But in Georgia the vast majority of donations are paid ones.
“We have about 40-45 donors daily. Occasionally their number reaches 80. More than 90 percent of them are paid donations,” Dolidze said. “The volunteers are too few and aren’t regular donors. They donate once in their life and think that it’s enough. Another option is when the whole staff of an organization donates and they use it as a PR stunt. This doesn’t happen in other countries. We encourage people to donate as much as we can, but it isn’t enough. Georgian’s have to change their attitude toward blood donations.”
Donors get 30 GEL (18 USD) for one portion of blood which is usually 450 ml at the Georgian National Blood Bank and Gori Medical Preparations. A healthy person can donate blood every two months but not more than 5 times a year according to Georgian Legislation. So if a person regularly donates blood, he/she can get 150 GEL (90 USD) a year.
Goen Medical Centre is the only blood bank in Georgia which doesn’t receive paid donors. It receives a number of donors. They have about 3,000 donors annually, which is less than other banks in Tbilisi.
“We have only volunteer donors due to the safety of blood. We inspect all potential donors very attentively, but still the risk factors of receiving infected blood rise much as when a person needs money, he/she often lies. So we prefer to have less blood but we are sure of its safety,” Avalishvili stated.
“The mentality of the average Georgian is very low when to comes to blood donation. They can’t understand the importance of donation. I had some cases when even the parents of an individual who needed blood didn’t want to give it. They were going to pay two or three times more money to me not to ask them to give blood. One father told me that he was afraid of needles and couldn’t donate for his child. The situation is dramatic,” he told The FINANCIAL.
“I gave blood for my relative. He was born with a heart disease and needed lots of blood. It was a direct donation. But I won’t give blood for anyone else,” confessed Leila in a talk with The FINANCIAL.
“Last year we had 1,412 donors. 1,368 donors were registered by October 2011. 90 Percent of them are paid donations. 5 percent of them are direct ones, when people give blood for a concrete person and only 5 percent are volunteers. This number is too low and is a result of the low culture of society. Volunteer donations must be encouraged somehow. In my opinion, the state should make blood donation mandatory once per year for everyone from 18 to 65,” Chighladze said.
According to Georgian Legislation everyone aged between 18-65 years can donate, which is the way it is in most countries of the world. Recently the USA made 16 the lower margin for donation. Donated blood safety is very important and it has special rules. Some blood banks add extra limitations.
Usually anyone can give blood if they are fit, healthy and not suffering from a cold, flu or other illness at the time of donation or in the 7 days prior, weigh more than 50kg but the weight has to be proportional to height, drink up in the 24 hours before donation, especially in warm weather, and have at least 3 to 4 good-sized glasses of water/juice in the 3 hours before donating, and have eaten something in the 3 hours before donating.
At most Georgian blood banks the first step for donation is filling out a special questionnaire about their health and lifestyle. If they pass this, then a therapist examines his health in detail and decides if he/she can continue preparing for donation. If the doctor allows it, a volunteer gives some blood for testing. If the tests show satisfactory results, he/she can give blood for donation. According to Georgian Law blood banks aren’t allowed to check people for viruses before giving blood. They can only check blood after giving it for donation and not people. So after satisfying all the steps, given blood is checked for viruses: HIV, syphilis, C and B hepatitis. Then it is separated into several components and kept for donation.
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