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.

  • stretch2m@infosec.pub
    13·
    2 days ago

    Supplies of every blood type are currently needed, but especially O positive.

    Wouldn’t that be O negative, the universal donor?

    • Fedop@slrpnk.net
      21·
      2 days ago

      O positive is the most common blood type, and apperently O-neg folk can handle O-pos once, so O-pos is generally the most commonly used for a crisis. Source: MD partner just checked openevidence Edit: O-pos is 40% of the population, O-neg is 6%, so they prefer to use O-pos. The real risk is just not having enough blood. Reading more, some 2019 source says only 1 in 2 million O-neg would die from O-pos blood. So really, almost everyone can use O-pos