Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS) Regional Blood Donor Centre (RBDC) organized a blood camp at Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology (GIKI), Swabi. The students enthusiastically participated in the blood drive where a record number of 286 blood units were collected in a single day. From these 286 blood units, 650 platelets, plasma, and RBCs units will be derived.
In his statement on the occasion, Chairman PRCS, Abrar ul Haq, praised the efforts of arranging a blood donation camp in GIKI. He appreciated and stressed the need for blood donation and the utter importance of maintaining an adequate supply of blood.
Abrar ul Haq said that overall blood collection has significantly reduced due to the pandemic situation. Closure of educational institutes due to COVID-19 and the partial lockdown affected scheduled blood camps and blood donation drives. “Blood collection has decreased from 5000 per month to just a few dozen per month amid COVID”, he added. He said as the COVID situation has improved, PRCS aims to arrange such drives diligently and actively. Moreover, a significant increase in demand is seen due to the increasing number of dengue cases, all across Pakistan. The demand for platelets is all-time high due to platelets transfusion which is correlated to manage the severity of dengue.
He hailed the cooperation of Red Cross Red Crescent Movement partners, ICRC, IFRC and ECHO particularly, in PRCS Blood Drives.
He said that as the educational institutions are opened, similar blood camps will be arranged in different universities to suffice the acute shortage of blood. “Youth participation is significant to bring a ray of hope for people whose lives are completely dependent upon this precious and irreplaceable gift”, Abrar ul Haq concluded.
