^{Photo by PanARMENIAN}

On the occasion of the World Blood Donor Day, around 150 young Armenians from different universities and organizations have visited  the Yeolyan Haemotology Center to donate blood.

Speaking to Tert.am, the president of the ruling Republican Party’s youth organization, Karen Avagyan, said it is the tenth year they have been organizing the function in an attempt to help the people needing blood transfusion.

“The banked blood will be donated to those in Armenia who need it. The young donors’ blood undergoes testing, and upon finding disease risks, we ensure continuity, by treating the young individual. We collect blood from all types of donors as we need them all. I don’t think we would have managed to hold a more humanitarian function than this for now,” he said.

June 14 was declared World Blood Donor Day in 2005 at a World Health Organization session in Geneva. The day is marked to honor Karl Landsteiner, an Austrian doctor who was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1930 for discovering the ABO blood group system.

Andranik Shamilyan, who is a doctor at the Yeolian Haemotology Center, told our correspondent that absolutely all types of blood are in demand.

“All types of blood are equally important for us. If the group appears to be rare, that also affects the demand; if it is encountered frequently, the demand is greater. After being taken from the donor, the blood specimen is divided into constituent part, and each patient is given the component s/he needs,” he said, adding that they take 450 ml blood from each donor.

The blood donors should be aged 18 or more and weigh minimum 55 kg if they are female or 65 kg if they are male.


“Before donating blood, the donors visit a therapeutist who determines whether the given individual is eligible for donating blood. Also, we take a small sample of blood in advance for testing purposes,” said the doctor.

Lots of donors had queued up outside the center today. As of 2:00 pm, some 7l-8l of blood had been collected.