MORE than a hundred people donated their blood last January 28 and 29 as the Philippine Red Cross conducted its Blood Donation Drive at two SM malls in Cagayan de Oro City.
According to Dr. Ted Yu, the medical officer of Philippine Red Cross, most of the more than 100 persons who donated their blood were males.
Meanwhile, most of those who were not qualified to donate blood were women, he added. Yu said it was due to low hemoglobin levels, as some of them were in their menstruation period.
The Red Cross have their checklist to determine if a person is not qualified to donate blood, such as having a weight of below 50 kilograms, low hemoglobin level, having illnesses, recent alcohol intake, ear or body piercing and tattooing, surgery, having multiple sex partners, engaging in unprotected sex, among others.
“It’s very important to have the checklist to have the quality, hindi lang (not only) quantity, sa blood,” Yu said.
The Philippine Red Cross, according to Yu, is conducting bloodletting or blood donation drives in different areas. However, they are still urging the public to donate blood to avoid shortage of blood supply.
“We like to still inform everybody na if they are qualified to donate blood, its very important to save lives,” Yu said.
“Usually, we request kung pwede every three months mag donate yung mga tao kasi last December nakulangan ng dugo dito sa MisOr (Misamis Oriental) and CDO (Cagayan de Oro),” he added.
Yu shared that every off season, in December, people usually priritize going to Christmas parties rather than donate blood which explains why they collected less blood bags compared to the other months of the year.
The Red Cross medical officer clarified that they still have enough supply, however they still wanted people to donate blood as Red Cross is supplying hospitals in Cagayan de Oro and Misamis Oriental. They also supply blood in Bukidnon, Gingoog and Iligan City.
“People from MisOr and Cagayan de Oro hopefully they can still go to Red Cross and donate blood,” Yu said.