Blood and bone marrow donations in Portugal decreased, due to the pandemic. In this sense, INESC TEC joined the Portuguese Blood and Transplantation Institute (IPST) to advocate for the importance of this act, for all those who can do it.
IPST’s mission is to guarantee and regulate the activities of transfusion medicine and transplantation in Portugal, while ensuring the donation, collection, analysis, processing, preservation, storage and distribution of human blood, blood components, organs, tissues and cells of human origin. Accordingly, the institution aims to 1) promote the donation of blood, cells, tissues and human organs, pursuing national self-sufficiency and 2) guarantee the availability of human blood, blood components, organs, tissues and cells of human origin, taking into account the national needs.
By giving blood, people are contributing to improve the quality of life of thousands of patients in Portugal, who every day depend on transfusions to continue living e.g., patients awaiting a bone marrow transplant.
According to the information provided by IPST, INESC TEC’s Technical Commission for Social Responsibility developed an infographic that helps understanding the conditions required to be a blood donor.
In order to make a blood donation, anywhere in the country, one can simply check the updated information on the platform www.dador.pt.
As far as potential bone marrow donors are concerned, all they have to do is donate blood; if everything goes according to plan, they are registered in a national and international database – which is used by patients who need a transplant on a daily basis.
Did you know that there are diseases – such as leukaemia or certain types of lymphomas – that can be cured through a bone marrow transplant? These patients only have a 25% chance of having a compatible sibling, and the percentage of finding a compatible unrelated donor is 1/1000. In this sense, the Portuguese registry of bone marrow donors was created so that donors can be found for these cases.
To be a bone marrow donor, you just need:
- to weigh at least 50 kg
- to be 18 to 45 years old
- to be healthy
If you meet the necessary conditions to donate blood, or to be a bone marrow donor, you can be crucial to someone’s life!
For further inquiries, please contact responsabilidade-social@inesctec.pt.
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