Taiwan has top rate of blood donation in Asia

GIFT OF LIFE The Taiwan Blood Services Foundation, which runs six blood centers nationwide, said donors provided 2.39 million 250ml bags of blood last year

STAFF WRITER, WITH CNA





Taiwan has the highest rate of blood donation among all the countries in Asia, the Taiwan Blood Services Foundation said yesterday.

Foundation chairman Lin Kuo-hsin (林國信) said that people donated a total of 2.39 million 250ml bags of blood last year, representing a donation rate of 7.86 percent, a figure that tops all other countries in Asia.

Donors with the blood type O positive accounted for 43.56 percent of the total number last year — the highest percentage of donors that year among the different blood groups, the foundation said.

BLOOD DRIVE

The foundation held a carnival-style blood drive on Sunday at its six blood centers around the country in observance of World Blood Donor Day, which is marked annually on June 14.

Lin said that millions of people around the world owe their lives to individuals they will never meet — people who donate their blood to help others.

To drive home the message that blood donation is not limited by borders, Lin said, the foundation invited five foreign donors to tell their stories.

A slender woman from the US who has been in Taiwan for the last 25 years and teaches English at National Taiwan University, said she was not allowed to donate blood in the US because of her weight, but could do so in Taiwan because she meets the minimum weight requirement of 45kg.

A French professor at Tamkang University said he began donating blood at the age of 19, and that after he got married and had children in Taiwan, he continued to donate blood as a way of showing his love for the country.

A Japanese woman, who has been living in Taiwan for nine years, said that giving blood is good for the health of the donor, in addition to the obvious value to the recipients.

‘ONE FAMILY’

An Indian man from Mumbai who has lived in Taiwan for 30 years said he has given blood in Taiwan “too many times to remember.”

He said it was amazing that God had created people of different nationalities but given them all the same blood types so they could share.

“Whether American, French, Japanese, or Taiwanese, the people on Earth are one family,” he said.