WORLD Blood Donor Day offers a moment of “gratitude, advocacy and renewed commitment” for thalassaemia patients in most parts of the globe. In Pakistan, it serves as a reminder of myriad life-threatening flaws. While procuring safe blood is a gamble for all, people with lifelong vulnerabilities — Hepatitis B, C and thalassaemia — remain particularly exposed to blood-borne disorders due to their need for regular transfusions. On the other hand, voluntary blood donations, impacted by fewer campaigns and diminishing awareness, have been on the decline. The scarcity of safe blood is manipulated by corrupt medics and blood banks that obtain it from professionals for ‘commercial’ purposes. These criminal actions put lives in tremendous danger — unscreened blood can carry the HIV/AIDS — recently seen in cases of infected babies in Balochistan, Sindh and Punjab — hepatitis and other infections.

Among the many culprits responsible for the transmission of blood-borne viruses is the absence of regulatory processes for donors, such as their lifestyle history and health appraisals. Secondly, the indiscriminate use of contaminated hospital equipment and screening kits that fail to detect pathogens, turns a life-saving component into poison. WHO’s ‘One Drop of Humanity. Give Blood, Save Lives’ campaign says “each donation is more than a medical act: it is a powerful expression of solidarity”. It should remind authorities that their apathy towards the long established nexus of illegal blood banks and amoral practitioners is destroying lives. The need for more manpower and mechanisms to monitor this sector, blood donations and donors is crucial. Willing and able citizens must be convinced through frequent drives in public and educational spaces to view voluntary blood donation as a humane exercise. The dramatic drop in donors implies little safe blood for the afflicted. In civilised societies, contracting diseases through unhygienic transfusions is unimaginable. Blood banks practising manual screening must be sealed and every doctor who treats blood as a commodity sacked. Each life harmed by clinical laxity should receive free medical care.

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2026