Why you shouldn’t donate blood on days of tragedies

In days of large-scale tragedies and disasters that result in many victims, many citizens consider it their duty to come to blood collection points and donate blood. One can not condemn such a noble desire, but this step is not rational from a practical point of view.

Firstly, to enroll a donor in the donor database, after the first blood donation, they need to come back in six months and donate blood again to exclude any infection in their blood. Untested blood samples are discarded — they do not help anyone.

Secondly, donating blood without a proper nutritional diet over the next 24 hours results in blood donations that are high in sugar, carbohydrates, fats and cholesterol. Such blood will be discarded as well. Needless to say that increased proportions of alcohol in the blood are unacceptable, but some people may still want to donate their blood after spending a night in a bar.

One should also bear in mind the fact that doctors use only blood from reliable donors for blood transfusions. Therefore, in order to be able to help people, one needs to register in this database and donate blood on a regular basis — once every six or three months, but not on days of disasters and tragedies. It is only this rational approach that will contribute to the effective replenishment of blood and plasma reserves.

From March 23 to March 25, more than 24,000 people donated blood for victims of the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall, the head of the Federal Medical and Biological Agency Veronika Skvortsova said.

"In just three days, Russian donor centres received prepared 10,000 litres of whole blood and almost 2,000 litres of plasma,” the official said.

In Moscow alone, more than 10,000 people donated blood in three days, Skvortsova added. More than 4,000 litres of whole blood and 279 litres of plasma were prepared in Moscow.