Social Media handy in solving blood scarcity

Visakhapatnam: Blood scarcity during summer, which looms large every year, was resolved significantly this year, thanks to social networking sites.

As most of the blood donation comes from students, the blood banks face scarcity when the institutions remain closed for summer vacation. According to statistics, blood donation activities revealed that between 60,000 and 80,000 units of blood are being collected in the district every year. 

Ideally, if one per cent of the eligible population donate blood annually there would be no scarcity of blood.  Various Facebook and WhatsApp groups run by social workers and NGOs in the city saved many lives this summer by reaching out to donors.  

KVRK Raju, secretary of Indian Red Cross Society Blood Bank, Visakhapatnam, said that   social networking sites helped to tide over summer blood crisis. 

Arasada Shekar Kumar, founder of Spoorthi Foundation, a volunteer organization, which creates awareness about blood crisis during the summer and gets requests for blood every day, said that  demand is high during summer while supply is less. Moreover, the city is known as medical hub as people from adjacent states also depend on it for medical treatment and major surgeries.

To combat blood crisis, NGOs and charity groups are coming forward to donate blood and their FB and WhatsApp groups are being handy to spread the information and reach out to the donors on time. “We are planning to strengthen the network further”, he added.