Social media helps raise voluntary blood donation in Covid-19 times

NEW DELHI: Blood donation camps, essential for quality healthcare and lifesaving medical procedures, received a crushing blow during lockdown caused by coronavirus. But as supplies dwindled, several state governments and hospitals leveraged social media to raise awareness and increase voluntary donation.
As per National Blood Transfusion Council (NBTC) data, 474 such camps were held in February this year. This number fell to 369 in March, and further dipped to 148 camps in April. The number of units donated slumped from 38,941 units in February to 22,865 units in April, amounting to a sharp drop of over 40%. In a country where blood is generally in short supply at hospitals, this was nothing short of a crisis.
"In the initial days of the lockdown, people couldn't come to blood banks. It was also difficult to organise camps because of social distancing rules. This is where social media stepped in," says Aditi Kishore, secretary, Hyderabad-based Aarohi Blood Bank.
Ruby Khan, vice-president of State Blood Transfusion Council (SBTC) in Madhya Pradesh, says a Facebook tool helped them tide over the problems faced during the lockdown. "Since April at least 70 per cent of the blood procured by the state banks came from donors who reached out to the hospital after reading about them on social media,” she said. Out of the 60 government blood banks in the state, at least 35 use a FB tool to increase voluntary donations.
According to Kishore, Aarohi had been using Facebook Blood Donation’s feature to generate awareness and also mobilise donors since 2017, but the platform became invaluable since Covid-19 broke out. A close look at the Aarohi page shows that it has posted appeals for blood at least five times every day during the lockdown. "Just a single unit of blood can be someone's lifeline," reads the sample of a message posted by Aarohi. Such appeals are fairly common across major social media platforms. A simple search with the keyword "blood donors" yields hundreds of results on Twitter. Although unregulated, these posts often mobilise people to donate blood by connecting them to patients directly.
According to Facebook, over 45 million Indians have signed on to the platform as donors with over 2,70,000 interacting regularly. The technology giant has also trained nearly 650 blood banks across 18 states to use its tools. It has partnered with at least 10 of these states, out of which four of them came on board during Covid-19, as states became hardpressed for blood supplies.
Kunal Arora, a thalassemic patient that TOI spoke to, recounted his struggles of procuring blood during the lockdown. Arora, now 23, was just three-months-old when he was diagnosed with the condition. The youth, who is based in Uttar Pradesh's Moradabad district, undertakes a 450-km journey to the national capital for his treatment every time he has to undergo transfusion.
"For over two decades now, I undergo blood transfusion at least twice a month. Under normal circumstances, I called the Red Cross Society two days before my scheduled transfusion, and they arranged the number of units I needed. But after the lockdown was announced, I was told that the bank was out of fresh supplies," said Arora, adding that he had to make dozens of phone calls to arrange blood for his treatment. Even then, he could not find a donor, following which he got in touch with an NGO, Sarthak Prayas, which put out his request on Facebook. Within a day, Arora found a donor and underwent the life-saving procedure.
Experts have been hoping to raise awareness about voluntary blood donation, and several hospitals and banks have ramped up their presence on social media to bust the myths around blood donation. On June 14, observed as the International Blood Donor Day, several NGOs, doctors and authorities including NBTC and several SBTCs undertook awareness campaigns on virtual platforms to encourage people to register as voluntary blood donors.
Zabir Khan, a regular blood donor from Gujarat, who uses the Facebook tool has an important message for people. "We can make a real difference to people's lives," says Zabir, 35, who started donating 12 years ago after a family crisis. A close relative needed blood urgently and Khan became the "replacement donor". Generally, replacement donors provide the same number of units of blood to a bank that is utilised by the patient. "No matter what financial backgrounds we come from, everyone can afford to donate blood," he says.