Bolgatanga, July 28, GNA – Madam Ajaratu Issah, the Head of Blood Mobilization at the Upper East Regional Hospital in Bolgatanga, has called on stakeholders to regard blood donation as a civic responsibility.
“As you donate blood, you will save your own life and the lives of others one day,” she said.
She noted that there were many misconceptions about blood donation and said, “When you donate as an individual, it gives you that satisfaction of saving a life.
“It serves as a form of a check to the donor and reduces incidences of heart attacks and issues of excess blood,” she said.
Madam Issah said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency after a blood donation exercise organised by the Upper East Regional Office of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA).
She said it was not true that donors would be unable to replenish their blood after donation and explained that the red blood cells always reproduced.
“That is why when donors donate blood, it takes them four months for the red blood cells to mature.”
The Head of Blood Mobilization said the Hospital had benefitted from blood donation exercises, which had equipped the blood bank and disclosed that the bank benefitted from 86 units of unscreened blood from the FDA’s exercise.
She thanked the FDA for the initiative to equip the blood bank and also expressed gratitude to the Mobile Telecommunication Network – Ghana (MTN), Zipline, second circle institutions and stakeholders in the Region.
Mr Sebastian Mawuli Hotor, the Upper East Regional Director of the FDA, said the exercise was part of the Authority’s corporate social responsibility to give back to society.
“The general public has been very cooperative with us in the execution of our mandate to regulate and ensure public health and safety by volunteering information so that we can rid the market of unwholesome products,” he said.
He said one of the ways the FDA could give back to society was through blood donation, noting that the exercise was crucial in the life of every individual.
“We are likely to reach out to every individual when we donate blood.”
Mr Hotor said the donation exercise in the Region started about three years ago on request from the National Blood Bank.
GNA