High Quality Blood Bank To Be Established in Volgograd Region

It is very hard to find an absolutely healthy donor

The Volgograd regional government is currently launching a new project - they start selecting people with perfect blood. They will become professional donors. The regional government has decided to establish a high-quality blood bank in Volgograd. The stock of the bank will be used to help the victims of emergencies.

The Volgograd regional administration has initiated the establishment of the blood bank. The number of healthy people decreases in the city every day. Donors can be very sick people sometimes - even HIV-positive individuals come to donate their blood to local donor stations. Luckily, doctors identify them on time. Nevertheless, the problem of a high-quality blood bank needs to be solved in the region. That is why, doctors suggested looking for immaculately healthy people, whose blood would allow them to become professional donors.

Deputies of the Volgograd Regional Duma have approved a special program for the implementation of the project. Apparently, the donor issue has reached the point that might lead to a catastrophe. The authors of the program say, there is no strategic blood stock for Volgograd region residents at all - there is no blood either in medical institutions, or in the regional departments of the interior ministry, emergency ministry, not even at the regional donor station. The Volgograd region is a part of Russia's southern administrative district, it borders on Chechnya. That is why, the strategic blood stock is extremely important for the regional population.

According to the official information, various diseases including B and C hepatitis and HIV infection are usually found in every seven donors from a group of ten. Last year, for example, four military men donors were rejected as HIV-positive. The HIV infection is about to take the scale of an epidemic among the civil population of the region. For the time being, there have been 4,681 infected people registered in the Volgograd region.

The question of donor blood is very actual for the region at the moment. A military hospital, for example, needs to be supplied with up to 20 liters of plasma and 10 liters of red corpuscles daily. This production is provided by casual donors, it does not go through all necessary examination stages that would totally guarantee its safety.

The establishment of the professional institute of donors will allow to create the permanent stock of thoroughly examined blood components. The stock will be used for victims of emergencies and haemophilia-sick children. The selection of professional donors is the most important goal at present moment. They will be selected from the number of usual donors after profound medical examinations and tests. First of all, a donor should be absolutely healthy. A donor's blood will be examined before a special contract is concluded with a donor. Secondly, professional donors should not have any bad habits - drug addicts, tobacco smokers or alcoholics are out of the question. Thirdly, a donor will have to be examined at medical institutions every two weeks. The blood donated from professional 100 percent safe donors will not be used in the healthcare system. The blood will be stored in special low-temperature freezers for up to six months. This time will be used for additional blood tests, because any infection might show during such a long period of time. The donor blood is considered to be absolutely pure after it is stored for six months. Then it will be delivered to regional hospitals to become a part of the permanent strategic blood stock.

Donors are a weak point of the entire blood bank project - it is rather hard to find a healthy donor. Chairman of the healthcare committee of the regional administration Yevgeny Anischenko said, 80 percent of all donors have sick relatives. They are ready to donate blood for their relatives, but will they do it for other people too?  

The program's authors suggested a payment to professional donors. A professional donor will be paid 130 rubles (about four dollars) for 100 millilitres of blood (50 rubles for blood and 80 rubles for dinner). This is a very small sum, of course, but the regional healthcare administration does not have more money for it. About ten million rubles will be needed to implement the blood bank program this year. One-third of the sum will be used for the selection of professional donors, and the rest of the money will be used for purchasing various medical equipment. Doctors hope that the new bank of absolutely pure and safe blood will stabilize the situation in the region. The establishment of the blood bank will also let the Volgograd region enter the new qualitative level from the point of view of treating blood diseases.

Mikhail Serenko