KATHMANDU: Agencies involved in collecting and supplying blood today urged volunteers to donate blood, at a time when the scarcity of the life-fluid looms in the country. The situation has also given rise to the possibility of commercial supply of blood by ‘professional donors’.

Dr Manita Rajkarnikar, director, Nepal Red Cross Society (NRCS), said they were finding it tough to bridge the gap between supply and demand of blood.

According to NRCS, only 160 units of the demanded 274 units of blood was supplied per day, after obtaining the same from mobile blood collection campaigns.

NRCS collected 136,580 units of blood nationwide - 53,108 units from central blood transfusion service, 28,121 units from districts and emergency centres and 11,380 units from hospital units - in the fiscal year 2007/08.

Male donors made a whopping 84 per cent of the total blood donors. Dr Rajkarnikar urged females to join the noble cause and push their number higher. She called on healthy persons meeting all the criteria to donate blood every three months. “We are forming various clubs in schools and colleges for making people aware of safe donation of blood, as a part of ‘Club 25’ programme,” she said, urging the government to implement National Blood Transfusion Service strategic plan.

Mahendra Bilash Joshi, president, Blood Donors’ Association Nepal, said they had not been able to meet the demand for blood, which is ever rising. “We face an acute shortage of blood in the festive season,” he added.