Leveraging World Blood Donor Day for Increased Voluntary Unpaid Blood Donation: insights from 2024 Commemoration in Bayelsa State, Nigeria

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Voluntary unpaid blood donation (VUBD) is the recommended strategy to ensure a regular supply of safe blood and blood products for countries’ transfusion needs. World Blood Donor Day (WBDD) was established to create awareness about blood donation and to promote VUBD. This paper describes the activities carried out inBayelsa state Nigeria to commemorate WBDD 2024. Residents of Bayelsa and neighbouring states of Delta and Rivers were informed and educated about the need for voluntary blood donation using the platform of the church, hospital and mass media. At the Federal Medical Centre Yenagoa where a live event took place on 14 June, the WBDD, 102 persons volunteered to donate out of which 16 were found suitable and eventually donated. The main reasons for deferral were high blood pressure, low haemoglobin and pregnancy. World Blood Donor Day rapidly increased the number of voluntary blood donation, but there is a need to sustain the campaign beyond the day to ensure the public is adequately reminded and mobilised to continue to donate voluntarily and regularly.