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Blood donation has fallen by 17% in the African region in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic that has caused widespread disruptions to key health services, lives and livelihoods.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
World Blood Donor Day is marked today. An analysis by the World Health Organization (WHO) found that the frequency of blood drives in the African region has dropped by 25% and demand for blood declined by 13%, with the suspension of routine surgeries in some countries and fewer people seeking care in health facilities. Around 7 million people need blood transfusion every year in the region.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s World Blood Donor Day is marked under the theme \u201cGive blood and keep the world beating\u201d to highlight the essential contribution blood donors make to save lives and improve the health of others.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cDisruptions to the steady supply of safe blood can be life threatening. We deeply appreciate the selfless, lifesaving gesture of blood donors and urge countries to set up and reinforce systems to increase voluntary blood donations,\u201d said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
WHO is collaborating with organizations such as the Coalition of Blood for Africa\u2014launched in November 2020\u2014the Organization of African First Ladies for Development and the private sector to improve access to quality blood supplies.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In partnership with Facebook, WHO has set up a Regional Blood Donations feature, which connects people with nearby blood banks. The tool is now live in 12 countries and over 3.8 million Facebook users have signed up to be notified of blood donation opportunities.<\/p>\n
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of WHO Regional Office for Africa.<\/i><\/p>\n
Source<\/a> Blood donation has fallen by 17% in the African region in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic that has caused widespread disruptions to key health services, lives and livelihoods. World Blood Donor Day is marked today. An analysis by the World Health Organization (WHO) found that the frequency of blood drives in the African region […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":68917,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/1623843007_639_418.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8377],"tags":[258,256,8309,4696,4554,8378,8379,8381,32926,12532,7668,257,33287,7170,254,11999,8380],"class_list":["post-68916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-congo","tag-africa","tag-africa-news","tag-blood","tag-central-africa","tag-congo","tag-congo-news","tag-congo-republic","tag-congo-brazzaville","tag-covid19","tag-donation","tag-falls","tag-news","tag-pandemic","tag-rate","tag-south-africa-today","tag-wake","tag-west-congo"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/1623843007_639_418.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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South Africa Today Africa \u2013 Central Africa Congo<\/a> News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"