HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh State AIDS Control Society (APSACS) will be hosting the first national conference on 'Voluntary blood donation' on September 14 and 15 in Hyderabad. The conference is meant to deliberate on the issues and challenges like blood replacement, artificial blood, cross border movement, regulatory environment and technological ecosystem that comes in with voluntary blood donation (VBD).
With an aim to bring in decisionmakers, administrators, VBD programme implementers, NGOs, academicians, donors and other stakeholders together and promote the much needed nonremunerative VBD movement in Andhra Pradesh, the conference will be held under State Blood Transfusion Council's technical guidelines. "Eighty percent of blood collections across the state are through voluntary blood donations while the seropositivity is 0.25 percent," said APSACS project director R.V. Chandravadan. Over 300 delegates across the country, active blood donors, motivators, blood bank professionals, members of NSS, NCC, Scouts, corporate social responsibility professionals, members of uniformed forces, NGOS, blood donation associations, academicians, members of medical fraternity as well as government and local body officials will attend the twoday conference.