VGP – As many as 1,500 people registered to donate blood at the Red Sunday 2012 program launched in Hà Nội on January 8.
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| Photo: Tiền Phong Online |
Red Sunday program is an annual event which is held in Hà Nội and many other provinces across the country to address blood shortage during Lunar New Year holidays.
The National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion reported that it only received some 8,000 blood units last December.
Organized by the Tiền Phong (Vanguard) Newspaper in collaboration with theHà Nội Communist Youth Union, the National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion, and Viettel, the program aims to encourage students and the city’s residents to actively response to this socialized activity.
Mr. Trần Ngọc Tăng, President of the Việt Nam Red Cross Society said that the country collected nearly 770,000 units of blood in 2011, up 14% against 2010 and 88.7% of which came from voluntary donors.
However, he said the collected amount of blood only meets 45% of the demand. Consequently, the shortage of blood in emergency cases and treatments frequently occurs in localities nationwide, especially on the occasion of Lunar New Year holidays and summer.
By Hải Minh