More black blood donors needed, Héma-Québec urges in special drive
Héma-Québec wants more black Montrealers to give blood to help others who receive frequent blood transfusions.
A special blood drive this weekend, in partnership Black History Month, highlighted a pressing need for donors within the black community, which has a higher frequency of hereditary diseases like sickle-cell anemia.
Regular blood recipients are more likely to have adverse reactions, but that this can be lowered when the donor is of a similar genetic background, the provincial blood serves agency said.
'Ticking bomb'
Marlin Akplogan suffers from sickle cell anemia and was at the blood drive Saturday.
"As I always say, living with a ticking bomb, you never know when you're actually going to have a crisis," Akplogan said.
"You never know when you're actually going to be in pain."
Sickle cell anemia distorts red blood cells when oxygen levels are low, which can result in severe pain. The disease is more prevalent among black people, Naderge Ceneston from Héma-Québec said.
"That's why we lean on black people to come and give blood, to help those recipients who have that disease," Ceneston said.
The event also called on black women to donate blood, reversing a policy that refused donations when their hemoglobin levels fall below a certain threshold.
This new program lowers the minimum level further and provides donors with iron pills to replenish their blood iron.
This new program and other initiatives have helped recruit 4,500 new blood donors in recent years, according to Héma-Québec.
Michael Farkas, president of the Black History Month roundtable, said the event was important to include as part of the programming.
"It's not culturally very accepted or even comprehended how crucially important it is," he said.
