(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Muscat -
The Ministry of Health (MoH), represented by the Department of Blood Banks Services, marked the World Blood Donor Day on Monday with a ceremony honouring individual and contributing establishments' donors who made its campaigns successful.
This year, World Blood Donor Day is celebrated under the theme 'Safe blood for all'. The event was held at Grand Millennium Muscat under the auspices of H E Dr Ali bin Talib al Hinai, Undersecretary for Planning Affairs, MoH, in the presence of a number of their excellencies and senior officials, in addition to representatives of the authorities and organisations that contributed to the success of blood donation drives.
Delivering a speech, Dr Zainab Salim al Oraimi, director of the Blood Banks Services, pointed out that the theme of this year underlines the significance of accessing to affordable and timely supplies of safe and quality-assured blood and blood products, as an integral part of universal health coverage and a key component of effective health systems.
She highlighted the medical achievements resulting from the ongoing blood donation drives including liver transplant operations, foetal blood transfusions, as well as bone marrow transplants and heart surgery.
In this regard, 11 liver transplant operations were successfully performed. A liver transplant operation requires the provision of 24 platelet units, 60 plasma units, and 40 units of red blood cells.
Dr Zainab added that 41 surgeries were performed on children after the campaign run by the National Heart Centre last September.
The ministry established a Guinness World Record on the National Blood Donation Initiative. Blood Banks Services in the sultanate has received considerable attention from MoH. In its efforts to upgrade the safety of blood, DNA screening technology for blood donors has been recently introduced to detect hepatitis B and C, and HIV/AIDS.
The honouring ceremony displayed presentations on the 'Safe blood for all' in addition to a project named 'Qatrat Hayat'.
At the end of the ceremony, 178 blood donors, including donors with rare blood groups and platelet, were honoured.
The honouring further included 55 public, private, and non-governmental organisations, authorities, and individuals engaged in blood donations campaigns, in addition to outstanding coordinators of blood donation campaigns and the sub blood banks in the sultanate's different governorates, as well the winners of the Qatrat Hayat project from the scout troops.
Celebrated on June 14 every year, World Blood Donor Day serves to thank voluntary blood donors and to raise awareness of the need for regular blood donations.
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