Vietnam will need an estimated of 850,000-900,000 units of blood to serve medical treatment next year, said Pham Tuan Duong, deputy director of the National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion. Up to 769,703 units of blood have been collected in the country since early this year with 88% from volunteers, posting an on-year increase of 14.81%. However, the collected blood amounts only meet roughly 40% of the total demand, Duong noted. Experts emphasized the importance of blood donation to ensure an adequate supply for patients in hospitals nationwide, encouraging young people and members of the armed forces to donate blood to help those in need. They also proposed to build one more blood center in Vietnam because neighboring countries like Thailand and Laos have tens of such centers while Vietnam now has only one. This year, Vietnam will set up an online blood bank to ease the country’s severe shortage, which is expected to provide patients with 37,500 units of blood by 2012 and 160,000 ones by 2015. (Lao Dong – Labor Dec 23, Dat Viet – National Land Dec 23)
