Red Cross declares crisis over blood shortage in US for second time in its history
www.bbc.com
Fewer donations and higher demand has seen a supply shortage worsen, the American Red Cross tells the BBC.

A blood supply shortage in the US has reached a “crisis” level, according to the American Red Cross, which says it is the second time in its 150-year history that levels have been this low.

Factors including wildfires and extreme heat have combined to create the current situation, Dr Courtney Lawrence, who works with the American Red Cross, told the BBC.

Supply levels dropped by a quarter just last month. The crisis has struck during summer, when the amount of blood needed by hospitals typically increases.

That is because of an increased number of car accidents and more people spending time outdoors, resulting in more injuries that require blood transfusions, Lawrence said.

  • boonhet@sopuli.xyz
    3·
    3 days ago

    I googled it and this is from blood.co.uk:

    Plasma from AB negative donations can help treat patients of all blood types, however fresh frozen plasma is only produced from male donations. This is because female donors (especially those who have been pregnant) can develop antibodies that, while no danger to themselves, can prove life threatening to patients transfused with their plasma.

    To avoid waste and to achieve the balance of plasma and red cells required by patients, we manage AB negative donations differently to other blood groups.

    We encourage our male donors to donate as frequently as possible while asking female donors to wait to donate until contacted directly by us.

    • cokeslutgarbage@sh.itjust.works
      2·
      2 days ago

      Interesting. Thank you for googling for me, I guess I could have done that. I’ll probably google a bit more and maybe add the info here just for infos sake, because this seems to be referring just to ab- and I’m ab+

      Personally, I’ve never been pregnant, but it sounds like the antibodies might still be present even before pregnancy.

      The bloodmobile/bank where i donate is ALWAYS desperate for blood, and I’ve never read or heard anything about this exclusion in my 17 years of donating, the only time I’ve ever been turned away is for low iron.

      • inconsistent_octopus@lemmy.world
        3·
        2 days ago

        Oh it’s not exclusionary. They’ll totally still take your blood. It’s just in the lowest demand in general, and blood banks often tell AB females (both + and -) that they will reach out when they want/need blood donation, rather than telling those donors to come for donations as often as possible like they do for other donors. If you’re willing to donate, by all means keep donating. The blood banks can figure out what to do with it and all blood has its uses!