Canadian Blood Services hopes to boost donations from black communities

A Canadian Blood Services nurse watches over a blood donor.

Canadian Blood Services (CBS) wants more people from black and other ethnic groups to donate blood.

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Eloise Tan, the vice-president of inclusion, sustainability and engagement for CBS, told CTV News Edmonton on Tuesday donations from black communities in Canada are underrepresented at blood donation clinics.

She said there are nearly 400,000 active donors and only 2,736 of them are from black communities – that’s less than one per cent of the blood donor base.

Neary 4.3 per cent of Canada’s population identifies as being black, which is nearly 1.5 million Canadians.

“There is a lower number of black donors in the system, but that doesn’t equate to a lack of blood for black (people) who live in Canada,” said Tan. “We are definitely targeting to be at par and even over the Canadian population within the next few years.”

According to Tan, CBS has a “need for donors who are matched by heritage” to cover bases and support people with rare blood diseases including thalassemia and sickle cell disease – the latter affecting primarily black communities.

CBS is working with black community researchers and influencers to help improve the donation experience for that community.

Part of that process involves reviewing policies and protocols to keep them free from bias and provide a safe and inclusive environment for those donating.

“We partner with people from black communities on a number of research projects so that we can hear from them directly on what the barriers might be and what possible solutions might be,” said Tan.

In 1996, CBS’s predecessor, the Canadian Red Cross, was required by Health Canada to introduce a question to the blood donor screening process that singled out eight countries in Africa, including Central African Republic, Cameroon, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Niger and Nigeria, according to a CBS news release.

If a potential donor lived in, was born in, or had sexual contact with someone from those countries they were unable to donate blood due to the unreliability of testing methods used to detect a strain of HIV from central and west Africa.

That changed in 2013 after CBS received approval from Health Canada to allow people from the listed countries to donate.

For more information on CBS’s initiative or to book an appointment, visit their website.