While there may be a host of reasons for this dangerous situation, the primary reason is the inability to persuade more and more people to donate blood. A lot of Nepalis still cling to the myth that donating blood will have a negative impact on their health. Many of them are yet to be convinced that blood donation is a perfectly normal and healthy practice. The reason behind such a belief is our inability to take heroic stories such as that of Prem Sagar Karmacharya, who in the past 31 years has donated blood 122 times and continues to lead a perfectly normal and healthy life, amid their midst. While most people know that donating blood can save someone else’s precious life, the fear about their own health is what keeps most Nepalis away from taking part in such a noble act.
The other major reason why our stock of blood exhausts faster than the normal rate is because of the focus on the transmission of whole blood (blood that is not separated from its components) even when it is unnecessary. Many patients may just be in need of one or more blood components such as packed red blood cells, plasmas or platelets but we still mostly resort to the transfusion of whole blood. This is an area that we need to improve upon as quickly as possible.
Perhaps, it is also time we started taking cues from healthy practices of other countries such as Italy that provides donors paid holiday on donation day. A healthy stock of blood is essential during normal times and critically important when a calamity strikes a country. We cannot factor out such an eventuality because disasters do not strike with a warning. Many a times, the immediate availability of blood turns out to be difference between life and death of an individual. Let us all try to see the wisdom in the age-old proverb “A stitch in time saves nine” and leave no stone unturned to do whatever needs to be done.
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