JEDDAH, 21 March 2006 — Blood banks are typically found in hospitals and blood-donation centers. Thanks to the Internet, blood banks are also now found online.
The first Arab-language blood bank website www.freeblood.com started in 2004 as a small charitable project that aims at bringing together people in need of blood, especially whose blood groups are rare, with those who are willing to donate.
“Usually, relatives of patients call the members who are willing to donate their blood,” said Khalaf Al-Joudi, freeblood.com’s supervisor. “The relatives meet the donors in the hospital’s blood bank, where the patient is. The blood bank then takes sample and analyzes it to ensure that the blood is uncontaminated before it is given to the patients.
Al-Joudi said he got the idea for the website after witnessing a bad experience with a member of his family who was admitted to hospital late at night after being severely injured in an accident.
“His blood group was B negative,” Al-Joudi said, pointing out that this is one of the least common blood types. When he was asking the blood bank to do anything to save his relative’s life, two people heard him and called someone that matched his blood type.
After that night, Al-Joudi, who is a schoolteacher, decided along with his cousins, Abdurrahman and Faisal Al-Joudi, and their friend Yasser Ghafouri, to form a cyber-network of blood donors that would be available for all people in need of blood.
“We thought first of all to post posters in the blood banks with a schedule of prospective blood donors and their contact numbers,” Al-Joudi said. “However, since we are in the age of the Internet, we thought it would be a better idea to do this online.”
Al-Joudi and his colleagues consulted doctors and webmasters in order to implement the site. “The project started as a local network, but now donors from other countries, such as Egypt, Palestine and Canada, have registered, willing to assist people in need of blood in their countries,” Al-Joudi said.
More than 6,050 members, mostly men, have posted their names, contact numbers and blood groups on the website, which is published in Arabic and English. Most members have O+ blood group; about 40 percent of the world’s population is O positive. The fewest members on the site have blood type B negative — about 2 percent of the world’s population has this blood type. AB negative is the most rare blood type, represented by about one percent of the population.
More than 410,000 people have visited the website since it was established. The most common reason for men in need of blood is injury related to accidents. For women, blood is commonly needed because of hemorrhaging during delivery.
Freeblood.com also offers general information about blood and blood donation. People who wish to subscribe in the website must be between the ages of 18 and 60 and must comply with the requirements that would apply at any hospital or blood bank.
