As numbers decline, Red Cross calls on more young Hongkongers to give blood
Recent years have seen decline in young and first-time donors, despite slight increase in overall figures
With a decline in young Hongkongers becoming blood donors, the Hong Kong Red Cross urged more volunteers to come forward on World Blood Donor Day on Tuesday.
The blood bank is in greatest need of blood types A and O.
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“We see more middle-aged donors at the moment,” Dr Lee Cheuk-kwong, service chief executive and medical director of the blood transfusion service, said.
“This is partly because the birth rate was lower in the past two decades, which means the number of eligible donors at the age of 16 has dropped.”
“Another reason is that young people nowadays have more activities than in the past.”
According to the Red Cross, the number of 16-year-old donors declined three years in a row, from 9,971 in 2013 to 9,267 in 2014, followed by a particulary significant fall to 7,109 in 2015.
If people start to give blood at a young age, it is easier to foster the habit.
This meant a big drop of 28.7 per cent for young people in just three years, despite the overall number of volunteers increasing slightly, by 2 per cent.
The number of first-time donors also declined by 10.3 per cent in the same period, from 41,129 in 2013 to 38,910 in 2014, and further down to 36,993 in 2015.
“If people start to give blood at a young age, it is easier to foster the habit, hence helping with a stable supply of blood,” Dr Lee said.
He added that the record holder in blood donation in Hong Kong had volunteered 175 times, which meant the donor had given blood for 40 years since the age of 20.
The blood collected by the service is mostly used by old people undergoing operations at public hospitals, Lee said. He expects the demand for blood to increase by 2.1 per cent every year given the rapidly ageing population.
Lee stressed that the organisation needed an average of 1,100 donors a day in order to supply around 800 bags of blood to the city’s public hospitals.
But turnout could be affected by many factors, such as the weather. Last week when there was heavy rain, the number of donors dropped to around 800 a day, he said.
On Tuesday, which has been declared World Blood Donor Day by the World Health Organisation, people who give blood at two centres in West Kowloon and Mong Kok will receive an additional gift from the Red Cross – a bear constructed from man-made towel.
Until Friday, donors can also receive a towel and a gift box.
