As many as 3,000 people in the northern Nam Dinh province have donated their blood in response to a call “A drop of blood can save a life”.

During the “Red blood drops 2013” festival held in the province on July 30, over 700 units of blood were collected and will be sent to the National Institute of Haematology and Blood Transfusion and Nam Dinh General Hospital to help ease severe blood shortage in hospitals.

Nam Dinh has since 2008 launched 65 blood donation events, collecting a total of 18,082 units of blood.

Earlier, a series of festivals encouraging people to donate blood to save lives were launched in various localities nationwide.

From July 7-28, a cross-country blood donation campaign themed “Red journey” went through 15 cities and provinces and collected over 10,000 units of blood for needy patients.

The campaign participants have organised communication activities to persuade residents in the localities they visited to involve in donating blood to hospitals.

Presently, over 5 million Vietnamese people are affected by autosomal recessive blood disorders, more than 20,000 of whom need regular treatment.

Each year, Vietnam needs more than 1.7 million blood units for treatment while the blood collected only meets half of the demand.

In 2012, hospitals nationwide received a total of 912,300 units of blood, a year-on-year increase of 13.2 percent.

For 2013, the National Steering Committee of Voluntary Blood Donation has set a target to collect more than 1 million units of blood.

The committee will also strive to increase the population donating blood to 1.15 percent from 1.06 percent in 2012.-VNA