MARAWI
CITY, Lanao del Sur, Aug. 18 (PIA) --- The Department of Health of the
Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (DOH-ARMM) is intensifying its
blood donation drive that would lead to a fully voluntary blood donation
system at the grassroots level.
The DOH-ARMM recently
conducted an advocacy orientation on National Voluntary Blood Service
Program of the department to more than 20 municipal planning and
development coordinators from the province of Maguindanao.
The
coordinators are expected to conduct orientation on voluntary blood
donation and bloodletting activities at the grassroots level in their
respective towns with assistance from the region’s Health department.
Dr.
Pancho Cruz, ARMM’s coordinator for the National Voluntary Blood
Service Program, said voluntary blood donation is a “humanitarian act,”
thus urging the coordinators to allocate funds for the operations as
well as logistics in maintaining the program.
The
municipal governments of Parang and Upi in Maguindanao are currently
holding a monthly bloodletting. This activity helps collect adequate
blood units allowing patients from the two towns to avail of blood
easily and for free whenever needed at the Cotabato Regional and Medical
Center in Cotabato City.
The DOH-ARMM has also established a
partnership with the Cotabato Regional and Medical Center that helps
patients from the region to avail of blood easily. But Dr. Cruz said in
three out of 10 cases, patients do not get the blood they need because
of insufficient supply from the blood banks.
He added that
only one out of 500 Filipinos voluntarily donates blood. The ideal
number of blood units per town must be equivalent to 10 percent of its
total population, he said. That is equal to, for example, to 1,679 units
for Kabuntalan town with 16,794 people based on 2010 census.
Republic
Act 7719, or the National Blood Services Act of 1994 mandates voluntary
blood donation by the citizenry to promote public health in the
country. In the Philippines, seven out of every 10 units of blood
transfused come from paid donors.
Blood from a paid
donor, Health officials said, is three times more likely to have any
four blood transmissible diseases such as malaria, syphilis, hepatitis
B, or even Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.
Orientation
on the 17th National Sandugo Awards, to be held in 2016, was also
conducted on the same day urging government officials and employees to
participate in activities related to blood donation. (Bureau of Public
Information/PIA-10)
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