PHOTO: Diplomats became blood donors in Astana

The ambassadors of Serbia, Sweden and France in Kazakhstan have donated blood in the Scientific and Production Center of Transfusiology in Astana, Tengrinews.kz reports. "Such gratuitous and voluntary donorship is widely spread in Serbia. I don't know of anyone who has not been a donor at least once," Ambassador of Serbia to Kazakhstan Branislav Radojčić said. According to head of WHO representative office Melissa Vuinovich, covering the whole country's demand for blood requires 4 percent of its population to be regular blood donors. For example, 8 percent of the population give blood in Denmark, which is 60 million units of blood per year. The percentage of Serbian blood donors has already reached 3.8 percent of the population. Majilis deputy Abai Tasbulatov joined the representatives of the diplomatic missions in the voluntary blood donorship: "The most amazing and pleasant for me is that it is possible to find out the blood type and check it for a range of diseases in a very short period of time. And most important is, of course, safety, as they have got new and very advanced equipment here. It is very important for us to make people feel safe when donating blood. Last year I donated blood with the guards. When I was commander of the National Guard, it was our sacred duty. You know, it has already become a habit for militarymen." According to Deputy Director for Medicine of the National Scientific and Production Center of Transfusiology Shaizhamal Mussabekova, there is an emergency blood stock for all kinds of emergencies: "We have an emergency stock of around 200 liters of plasm. There are around 3 tons in the quarantine bank for emergencies as well. In general, we have 100 - 200 donors a day. We take the total of 28 thousand liters of blood a year." According to Mussabekova, the most rare blood type in the world and in Kazakhstan is AB: only 9 percent of people have it. Negative rhesus blood factor is also rare. The most frequent blood type is O positive.