New Delhi, June 14 : Delhi Health Minister A. K. Walia Friday said every every blood donor a hero, and urged volunteers to re-build the society with safe blood transfusion.

"Blood donation is the biggest heroic act which saves many precious lives. We should re-build the humanitarian society with the service motto of safe blood transfusion," Walia said in his inaugural address at a seminar on 'Promotion of Voluntary Blood Donation', organised here on the occasion of World Blood Donor Day.

"Blood banks should improve the blood safety by incorporating latest testing technologies like NAT (Nucleic Acid Testing) to reduce chances of infection," said R. N. Makroo, director, department of transfusion medicine at the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital.

He also said that most of the volunteers are one-time blood donors.

"We need regular repeat donors. We have patients who need multiple transfusions for which blood, and especially of a rare blood group, becomes an inevitable component," Makroo added.

The seminar was jointly organised by the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital and State Blood Transfusion Council.(IANS)