Satisfying the surgical demand, emergency care and medical assistance of the Maternal and Child Care Program is possible in Cuba thanks to voluntary blood donations.

Exclusively to the Cuban News Agency, Ariel Legrá Ayala, head of the blood bank and clinical laboratory at the National Institute of Angiology and Vascular Surgery, said that there is no substitute for this vital liquid, which is why donations are so necessary. , because for each one three to four lives can be saved.

Regarding World Blood Donor Day, he specified that fresh plasma, platelet and erythrocyte concentrates and cryoprecipitate are obtained from this, so that when a person altruistically extends his arm, it affects several patients.

Cuba registered more than 350 thousand blood donations in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He, also graduate in Transfusion Medicine, explained that both the components of urgent and emergency surgeries and elective surgeries are guaranteed at the Institute, and around 400 surgical interventions have been performed at the center from December 2021 to date.

Legrá Ayala pointed out that in this period, more than 150 components were transfused between blood cells, plasma and platelets, with which more than 50 patients have benefited.

The nation also has plasmapheresis and plateletpheresis programs, from which the necessary components are acquired for people with platelet and coagulation disorders, and there is a hyperimmune plasma program for the manufacture of vaccines and gamma globulins, he added.

Until this Tuesday, the National Blood Donor Day takes place in the country, which began on June 6 in commemoration of the donation made in 1970 by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz in support of the people of Peru, victims of an earthquake.

During these days, through activities in the municipalities and provinces highlighted in this task, the anonymous heroes who save numerous lives with their blood are recognized.

Every June 14, World Blood Donor Day is celebrated to raise awareness of the need for safe blood and blood products for transfusions, and the date highlights the contributions of voluntary non-remunerated donors to national health systems.