Supply shortages Blood donations are scarce

Decline in blood donations due to warm weather and summer holidays

08/14/2014

According to the report of the German Red Cross (DRK), during the summer holidays a decline in blood donation is expected, which can lead to bottlenecks in the supply of blood preparations. As the holidays are taking place for the first time in all federal states at the same time this year, an additional aggravation of the problem threatens.

„Especially in the holiday season, when anyway, due to the high travel volume, fewer people go to the blood donation, it may come to bottlenecks, especially in the rare blood types“, reports the DRC blood donation service NSTOB. In order to avoid these supply bottlenecks, all citizens are called upon to take advantage of the blood donation appointments at the DRK even during the holiday season. However, the donation readiness is according to the NSTOB spokesman Markus Baulke opposite the news agency „dpa“ generally throttled by the summer heat.

„We fear that the negative trend through the summer holidays will continue in August“, explained Baulke. This threatens significant supply shortages, especially in the rare blood types. Because the shelf life of donated blood limited in time, so that continuous blood donation are indispensable. A drop in donors by three percent over the previous year, as he loud, for example „dpa“-NSTOB was registered for Thuringia in July, the experts are therefore very worried.

Limited shelf life requires continuous blood donation
The DRK blood donation service based in Springe, Lower Saxony organizes blood donations in Bremen, Lower Saxony, Oldenburg, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. In Thuringia alone, according to the announcement of the „dpa“ organized annually by the NSTOB 2,200 blood donation appointments. A storage of blood donations „is technically possible only conditionally, because the blood is not made available to the patient as it is donated and not all constituents of the blood are equally durable“, explains the blood donation service. Thus, it is necessary for the various areas of use to fractionate the blood and divide it into its main components: the red blood cells (red blood cells), which have a shelf life of 49 days, the platelets (platelets), which can be stored for four days and the plasma, which has a shelf life of up to one year.

Bottlenecks in rare blood type
According to the NSTOB, the short-lived platelets depend primarily on cancer patients, with short-term survival posing a significant problem if insufficient new blood donations are provided. „In addition to limited shelf life, variability in demand is another reason why blood needs to be continually donated“, the blood donation service continues to report. For example, six percent of the population would have the blood group 0 Rhesus factor negative. Although the average proportion of blood donors in this blood group is eight percent, at peak times the need for care significantly exceeds the available blood donation. (Fp)