IN celebration of the Blood Donation Month, the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH 7) is requesting all local chief executives to encourage their constituents to donate blood. Dr. Dino Caing, medical officer of the DOH 7, said during the Association of Government Information Officers 7 forum on Tuesday that 30 percent of the population in the province, especially those in far-flung areas, chose not to donate blood because this will be stored in Cebu City and they could not use it when they need it.
Caing explained that the blood will be brought to the city because the town hospital does not have blood storage facility.
He said they are willing to help the local government units have their own blood storage facility but the problem is that they don’t have staff to man it.
“We are appealing to the mayors to prioritize health. We appeal to the local government units to update their national voluntary blood service program,” he said.
He said donating blood can save lives, especially with the increasing rate of maternal deaths.
Based on their records, there are 162,000 cases of maternal deaths per 100,000 population.
He said 20 percent of the mothers die in the residence, 20 percent in the hospitals and 15 percent die along the way because of blood loss.
The DOH is targeting to collect 1,000,000 blood bags from donors, which represent one percent of total population of 100,000,000 million people nationwide.
In Central Visayas, the DOH 7 is targeting to gather 45,000 blood bags from the 4.5 million population.