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Only 4 out of 1,000 people donate blood in Cambodia

Xinhua, June 14, 2015 Adjust font size:

Cambodian Health Minister Mam Bunheng on Sunday called for more blood donations since the Southeast Asian country saw only 4 out of 1,000 people donate their blood.

"I'd like to appeal to youth, students, and all citizens to contribute further to increasing the number of blood donors in Cambodia," he said during the celebrations of the World Blood Donor Day.

The minister said proper blood transfusion would not harm donors' health; instead, their blood would save lives of the patients.

Hok Kim Cheng, director of the National Blood Transfusion Center, said that according to the recommendation of the World Health Organization (WHO), as a developing country, Cambodia should have 10 out of 1,000 people as blood donors.

He said the center had received the blood donations of 21,100 units in the first five months of this year, up 5 percent compared with the same period last year.

Each unit contains 350 milliliters of blood.

WHO-Cambodia's representative Dong-il Ahn said currently only 34 percent of blood donors in Cambodia are voluntary -- the percentage is very low if compared with its neighboring countries that up to 90 percent of blood donors are voluntary.

"Blood saves lives. A unit of your blood can save up to three lives," he said at the event, which was attended by about 400 blood donors.

One of the donors said blood transfusion does not damage her health.

"It is the seventh time I donate my blood. For my own observation, no health problem arises from blood donation, and my health is normally good," a 34-year-old woman, Hai Chai Fou, said. Endi