June 14th is World Blood Donor Day

Today the world thanks Blood Donors. This year’s World Health Organization campaign, “One Drop of Humanity. Give Blood. Save Lives”, places humanity at the heart of every donation. It reminds us that each blood, plasma, and platelet donation is a powerful expression of solidarity, compassion, and collective responsibility.

Donations of blood, platelets, and plasma facilitate a wide range of essential, often life-saving treatments. One blood donation can save as many as three lives. Blood and platelet transfusions are essential when dealing with trauma or major surgery, and are often needed in cancer management, or to treat inherited chronic blood diseases such as Thalassaemia; donated plasma is a source to produce plasma medicines that are indispensable for the treatment of people with conditions such as primary immunodeficiency and auto-immune neuropathies.

The generosity of voluntary unpaid donors remains the foundation of safe and sustainable blood supplies worldwide. EBA welcomes the provisions in the new Regulation on Substances of Human Origin (SoHO 2024/1938) which urges EU Member States to both support voluntary and unpaid donation and increase their collection capacity and donor base for blood and plasma by investing in non-profit and public programmes, including plasmapheresis. By increasing their funding towards public collection programmes, EU Member States will greatly improve the prospects of delivering a secure and resilient supply of blood, platelets, and plasma medicines for their patients in the coming years.

We finish by again expressing our gratitude to our blood, platelet, and plasma donors – each of you helps form a lifeline that connects and protects us all. Together, we can help ensure that safe blood is available for everyone, everywhere, whenever it is needed.