On this day 189 years ago — on 20 April 1832 — Andrei Wolf, a young doctor from St Petersburg, performed the first blood transfusion in Russia. The patient was a woman in labour who had an obstetric bleeding. She received her husband’s blood, and it saved her life.

Since 2007, National Donor Day in Russia is observed on 20 April.

Sechenov University’s Blood Centre has outstanding competences in its field. The Centre ensures that blood and its components are continuously processed within a single organisation — from collection of biomaterials to ultimate clinical use. The Blood Centre promotes and advertises blood donation, performs processing, storage, and transportation of blood and its components, certifies donors and patients, and provides transfusion aid for the University Clinical Hospitals.

The Blood Centre has the best equipment, including the latest types of blood and plasma cell separators; devices for pathogenic inactivation and leukofiltration, long-term storage of plasma and blood cells; modern automated complexes for immunohaematological and molecular tests. Its laboratories use DNA and RNA diagnostics to test for bloodborne pathogens. The Blood Centre is connected with the network of the Federal Information Centre of FMBA — Federal Medical-Biological Agency of Russia.

Blood donation is completely safe and can bring some benefits, such as improved haematopoiesis and immunity.

According to the provisions of the 2012 Russian Federal Law ‘On the donation of blood and its components’, a person who has donated blood 40 times — or plasma 60 times — is awarded the title of Honorary Donor of the Russian Federation. Over the recent years, three of our students received this title at the time of graduation from Sechenov University. The Blood Centre staff also donate blood and its components; almost half of them do it regularly, and seven have the title of Honorary Donor.

Donors can be found in every department of the University, while at least 30% of them are students. We take pride in the fact that some of our alumni who continued to work at Sechenov after graduation have been donating blood for more than 25 years.

We congratulate the donors, the medical staff, and the volunteers — everyone who has been involved in the work of the Blood Centre. We appreciate your contribution to public health.