Help Red Cross help others! Donate Blood!

News headlines about Degue Fever in Iloilo, Negros and around the country is alarming. These are from ABS-CBN.com:

• Dengue cases fill up gov’t hospitals
• Bacolod City ‘under imminent danger’ due to dengue
• Iloilo province under state of calamity over dengue outbreak
• DOH: Dengue cases could reach 80,000

Why donate blood? Why now?

The need of blood is constant, and in an advent of a disaster, urgent! The outbreak of Dengue, which in most, if not all severe cases require transfusion of platelet, a component of blood, pushed the need of blood beyond the limit of our local Red Cross Chapter.  Donating blood and donating it now means replenishing the blood used  by hundreds of patients, most of them Dengue Fever victims. Only through the immediate availability of these blood that lives are saved. Thus, donating blood, something that you can spare irregardless of your financial standing, means saving others, or maybe, God forbids, your own life.

What benefits you will have in donating blood to the Red Cross?

• It’s something you can spare – most people have blood to spare… yet, there is still not enough to go around
• You will help ensure blood is on the shelf when needed – most people don’t think they’ll ever need blood, but many do
• It feels great to donate!
• You can save lives – in fact, you may help as many as three people with just one donation.

What happens to donated blood?

• Donor is registered and blood is collected
• Blood is processed, spun in centrifuges to separate the transfusable components – red cells, platelets, and plasma
• Tests are performed on each unit of donated blood – to establish the blood type and test for infectious diseases
• When test results are received, units suitable for transfusion are labeled and stored
  • Red Cells are stored in refrigerators at 6ºC for up to 42 days
  • Platelets are stored at room temperature in agitators for up to five days
  • Plasma and cryo are frozen and stored in freezers for up to one year
• Blood is available to patients and hospitals 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

It is important to understand that donated blood is collected, tested, processed and stored in a special bags and refrigerators and freezers. The amount you paid when you get these blood packs from the Red Cross blood bank cover these expenses. You didn’t pay for the blood because the blood is NOT for sale.

The Philippine National Red Cross is a non-government and not-for-profit organization. The success of its programs depend on people like you! Let us help Red Cross help others!

 Sources: article- American Red Cross, logo- blog.officelinks.com/, web.mit.edu/blood-drive/www/

Read more on Dengue and Traveling to Iloilo