Krovoobig database has been launched in Ukraine

The world marked the Blood Donor Day on June 14, 2012. Unfortunately, it is mostly NGOs that are concerned with blood donation in Ukraine now, while what the nation needs is a major government program, because the shortage of donated blood is a very hot issue. Official data on the blood amounts required are lacking, but every hospital has patients in need of a transfusion. NGOs, too, maintain lists of sick people, including those with cancer, who need blood urgently. Donors are paid 80 hryvnias for 450 to 500 ml of blood in Ukraine, but the experts say unpaid donations are needed.

“People come to blood transfusion units to earn money, but their health is often poor. So I think we need to promote unpaid blood donations, as they do in Italy or Germany. After all, the donor must be a healthy person. German teenagers receive a postcard on their 18th birthday with a greeting and an explanation that they may become a donor now and save somebody’s life. Many young people there ‘celebrate’ their coming of age with a blood donation,” the head of the Crab Children’s Cancer Fund Larysa Lavreniuk told The Day.

Unfortunately, the Ukrainians are so unhealthy that despite the shortage of donors, 20 percent of those wishing to donate blood are rejected after a medical examination even before blood testing, while 60 percent of those tested fail the test because they are afflicted with infectious diseases. Another problem is poor quality and outdated blood testers that should determine whether hepatitis virus, HIV, syphilis, and the like are present in the blood. According to the NGOs, test results are correct only half the time, thus patients are sometimes infected during blood transfusions.

On June 14, 2012 an electronic database krovoobig.com.ua was launched in Ukraine to facilitate, however slightly, finding a donor, as well as encourage people to donate blood.

“Any person who wants to donate blood may register on our website by completing the form. The same may be done by the people who need blood. We have also created a page on Facebook to disseminate information about our work wider. We are ready to coordinate the requests and proposals from our users. As of June 14, 34 donors have registered on the website,” the Krovoobig (Blood Circulation) project’s chief manager Liudmyla Kosovych told The Day.

The absence of a single national blood bank in Ukraine is, perhaps, among the worst problems, because it prevents concerted action. The experts say that a blood transfusion unit may experience a shortage of blood while simultaneously another one may have to throw it away because it is past its expiration date. According to the chairperson of the Shevchenko district branch of the Red Cross Society of Ukraine Natalia Ponomariova, the system of blood donation has been destroyed in Ukraine over the past 20 years, and so has the understanding that it is very important for other people, and that anybody could need it someday. Quite a few citizens do not even know about the problem.

Experts are convinced that Ukraine needs a targeted program of development and promotion of blood donation, even as the state is now often shifting the responsibility for finding blood for patients to their relatives.