New Delhi: While the world is all set to celebrate World Blood Donor Day tomorrow with the theme "Blood connects us all," we are here to clear the air and raise awareness about blood donation.
According to a 2012 World Health Organisation (WHO) report, only nine million units are collected annually, while the need is for 12 million units. Delhi NCR alone faces a shortage of 1,00,000 units per year.
From 'threat of catching diseases' to 'blood donation causing weakness,' various myths keep the people from donating. To understand better, Curofy- India's largest community of verified doctors - conducted a poll asking doctors about the most common myth around blood donation. A total of 2560 doctors polled. Of them, a whopping 78.1 percent said that people believe blood donation will make them weak.
"It is totally a myth and very psychological perception when a donor sees blood going out of his body" said Dr. Deepak Chauhan, Emergency Medicine, Fortis Healthcare. "Our body recovers 100 percent after blood donation, rather I would suggest that blood donation is a good activity."
There is also a big misconception that blood donation causes various diseases. 18.7 percent of all the doctors who polled said that patients are concerned about contracting HIV or other communicable diseases by donating blood.
Dr. Dheeraj Gautam, HOD Histopathology, Medanta, said, "There is a huge misconception that donating blood weakens your body and makes you susceptible to infections. With the new antiseptic precautions chances of any infection and other issue are negligible now."
As a country that is going to be the next superpower, India is still being held back by myths like these. More people are needed to come forward and donate blood to help fellow citizens live a long and healthy life.
"Blood donation is noble cause indeed and it's sad to see such a large blood deficit in our country. We tried to identify the common myths and bring them out with this poll.", said Mudit Vijayvergiya, Co-founder, Curofy. "The results clearly show that we need to educate the masses about the importance of blood donation and make them aware as to how safe it is."
