India’s blood requirement is about 6 million units per year. Blood Banks are able to collect only about 3 million units per year. Patients actually die because the right kind of blood does not reach them in time. The heavy shortfall in supply encourages racketeering in blood and blood products. It also encourages blood donation for money, encouraging “ professional” donorship. Professional donors come from weaker sections of the society and are rarely in ideal health for blood donation and do it only for commercial reasons. The risk of infection is also high in blood collected from professional donors.

It is believed that if 2% of India’s population donates blood once a year, the blood requirement of the country can be easily met.

Blood facts

Blood fights against infection and helps heal wounds, keeping you healthy.
Blood makes up about 7% of your body's weight.
A newborn baby has about one cup of blood in his or her body.
White blood cells are the body's primary defense against infection.
Granulocytes, a type of white blood cell, roll along blood vessel walls to search and destroy bacteria.
Red blood cells carry oxygen to the body's organs and tissue.
There are about one billion red blood cells in two to three drops of blood.
Red blood cells live about 120 days in the circulatory system.
Platelets help blood to clot and give those with leukemia and other cancers a chance to live.
Apheresis is a special kind of blood donation that allows a donor to give specific blood components, such as platelets.
If all blood donors gave 2 to 4 times a year, it would help prevent all blood shortages.
The fear of Blood is called Hemophobia or Hematophobia. Common symptoms of this fear are nausea, fear of dying, sweating, dry mouth, etc. It only takes a realization to overcome it.