TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iran currently has the highest blood donation rate in the Eastern Mediterranean region, so that some 2.5 million Iranians refer to blood donation centers across the country annually, Government spokesman Ali Rabiei said on Wednesday.
“It is an obligation for all of us to consider blood donation a social, ethical, and religious duty,” he said, adding that the blood donation rate in Iran is one and a half times the rate in countries with above-average income, IRNA quoted Rabiei as saying.
Last year, Iran Blood Transfusion Organization had predicted an eight-percent decline in blood reserves, while the World Health Organization had forecasted the rate to be 20-30 percent on average for the world, he explained.
Despite the prevalence of COVID-19, blood donation has increased by 40 percent since the beginning of the current [Iranian calendar] year (March 21), compared to the same period last year, Peyman Eshghi, head of Blood Transfusion Organization, said in May.
100% voluntary blood donation in Iran
While blood donation in 70 countries still depends on replacement or paid donors, Iran is the first country in the region that has enjoyed voluntary blood donation by 100 percent since 2007.
More than 85 percent of all donated blood worldwide is used to produce blood products, while the rate is 65 percent in Eastern Mediterranean countries. Iran ranks among the highest-income countries in terms of converting more than 97 percent of the blood donated by people to plasma-derived medicinal products (PDMP).
Out of 9.9 million blood donation units in the Eastern Mediterranean region, more than two million belongs to Iran.
Also, the index of blood donation is 25 per 1,000 populations, while in the member states of the Eastern Mediterranean region, this number is 14.9 per 1000.
According to the World Health Organization, about 117.4 million blood donations are collected worldwide. 42 percent of these are collected in high-income countries, home to 16 percent of the world’s population.
