The earliest documentation of blood transfusion is found in the religious text of many civilizations. The first documented demonstration of blood transfusion was between two dogs by Richard Lower in 1665.
Landsteener discovered the ABO Blood Group system in 1901, which is one of the most important landmark discoveries in the Transfusion Medicine. In the 1970s voluntary donors were accepted as blood donors. These donors were later on found to people having high-risk activities and the recipients were found to be suffering from liver diseases. This leads to another discovery of Hepatitis B transmitted by donated blood. Since then testing for the hepatitis B antigen was implemented and this together with cessation of paid donors reduced the incidence of post transfusion hepatitis. Further studies also made us to include tests for Malaria, Syphilis, AIDS, and Hepatitis C to make the donated blood as safe as possible to the recipient.
There are many, many people who meet these parameters of health and fitness!
One can donate blood at government approved blood banks. These blood banks have the facilities to collect blood from healthy donors, make the necessary tests, to build up a supply of good quality blood and supply it to patients according to their needs. At present there are 32 blood banks run by the government and 103 blood banks owned privately in the state. Besides there are blood storage centers, which have the facilities to collect and supply blood to hospitals outside the urban limits.
Our body has 5.5 litres of blood of which only 350 ml - 450 ml of blood is taken depending upon the weight of the donor. Majority of healthy adults can tolerate withdrawal of one unit of blood.The withdrawn blood volume is restored within 24 hours. Hemoglobin and cell components are restored in 2 months. Therefore it is safe to donate blood every three months.
