Blood donation in Lebanon
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by Executive Editors November 9, 2018

written by Executive Editors November 9, 2018

Anyone active in the Lebanese social media bubble will have seen the all too frequent posts, shared on behalf of family or friends, urgently calling for volunteers to donate a specific blood type at a specific hospital. What people may not realize is that the blood they are being desperately asked to donate might not actually go to the patient who is asking for it. Lebanon’s blood transfusion system runs on what is called family/replacement donation—hospitals give the needed blood units, if they have them, to the patient, provided that these are replaced by the patient’s network of family and friends. If a patient needs six units of A+ blood, then they will be responsible for replacing these six units in the hospital’s blood bank. Replacement donation is not unique to Lebanon; 71 countries are still dependent on replacement or paid donors for over 50 percent of their blood supply,

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Executive Editors are the collective voice of the magazine. Stories written by Executive Editors are the culmination of discussions, brainstorming, research and information-gathering by our editorial team. Over decades, our editorial team has applied a blend of seasoned expertise and a discerning eye to bring you insightful and engaging and substantive reads that eschew sensationalism.

2 comments

Marcus February 12, 2019 - 8:39 PM

Interesting read. Any ideas as to why I was turned away?

I was asked by a family to donate (as I shared the same blood type as the child requiring the transfusion), but when I arrived to the hospital, I was told in no uncertain terms that the country I’m from was on a list of proscribed nationalities. Those that are not permitted to provide platelet/blood transfusions.

I’m English, a British citizen. Seemed pretty arbitrary to me – but there could well be good reason for it I guess?

Susan Wilson March 1, 2019 - 2:04 PM

Hi Marcus,

Thanks for the feedback. It actually has do with Mad Cow Disease, there are a lot of countries around the world that don’t accept blood donation from British citizens or those who lived in the UK for a time between 1980 and 1996.

Comments are closed.

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Blood donation in Lebanon
EN AR