World Blood Donor Day 2020: Know All About The Day And Why it is Important

Karl Landsteiner discovered the three blood groups A, B, and O.

When it comes to saving lives, there can be nothing more important than the blood that runs through our veins. How you might ask? Well, for one, through blood transfusion, which saves millions of lives every year. Donated blood can help someone suffering from a life threatening condition to live a better quality of life and even longer. So as World Blood Donor Day 2020, which is marked every year on June 14, approaches, we take a look at how the day came about and why its important.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has eight official global public health campaigns, and they are, World Tuberculosis Day, World Health Day, World Immunization Week, World No Tobacco Day, World Hepatitis Day, World Malaria Day, World AIDS Day, and World Blood Donor Day. Each of them play a vital role in bringing about awareness to the public.

Beginnings of World Blood Donor Day:

As stated at the beginning, blood transfusion and blood products help to save lives, and provide support during medical and surgical procedures. World Blood Donor Day was established in 2004, and the reason June 14 was chosen was to commemorate the birth anniversary of Austrian biologist, physician, and immunologist Karl Landsteiner.

Karl Landsteiner, who has been described as the father of transfusion medicine, discovered the three blood groups A, B, and O. He also found that blood transfusion between persons with the same blood group did not lead to the destruction of blood cells. It was based on his findings that the first successful blood transfusion was performed by Reuben Ottenberg at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York in 1907.

Why World Blood Donor Day is Important:

Many countries to this day do not have an adequate supply of safe blood, and ensuring that there is sufficient and clean blood is quite challenging. The reason World Blood Donor Day is held is so that awareness can be raised about the importance of donating blood and to also thank the many who step forward to donate their blood to save others.