Each year, 1 million people are cared for thanks to blood donations. And every day, 10,000 blood donations are needed to meet the needs. So what are these needs? The use of blood products can be divided into three categories:
Respond to emergency needs
Accident, childbirth, surgery… Blood products are used daily to stop bleeding. Which are the cause of many deaths and the main source of blood needs for hospitals and emergency physicians. “Depending on the degree of haemorrhage, patients may receive one or more types of blood products: red blood cells, platelets, plasma”, explains the French Blood Establishment (EFS). “In case of haemorrhage, it is necessary to proceed to a transfusion of red blood cells. They ensure the replenishment of oxygen to the various organs. When a person loses a lot of blood during an operation, they also receive platelets which help to stop the bleeding and facilitate clotting. In some cases of major bleeding or severe burns, plasma may be transfused. Why plasma? Because it helps transport blood cells and nutrients while defending the body against infection. »
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Treat chronic diseases
Donating blood can also be used to treat many diseases, including certain cancers. An example: leukemia, a bone marrow cancer that limits the production of red blood cells in the blood. The treatment is then chronic and requires monitoring and regular transfusions.
But the donation also makes it possible to compensate for certain effects of cancer treatments. Thus, chemotherapies can “not only lead to the destruction of cancer cells in patients but also that of the cells of their bone marrow, which are at the origin of blood cells”, continues the EFS. “During this so-called period of aplasia, the body can no longer renew its red blood cells. It becomes necessary to transfuse large quantities of platelets and red blood cells to counter the effects of treatments and improve the patient’s health. »
As for patients with certain genetic diseases (hemophilia, sickle cell disease or thalassemia), they receive blood transfusions throughout their lives.
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Make medicine
Perhaps you do not know it, blood donations also make it possible to treat patients by making drugs produced from proteins extracted from plasma. People in intensive care and severe burns are treated with albumin; those with immune deficiencies and certain autoimmune diseases are treated with immunoglobulins; and hemophiliacs thanks to coagulation factors.
Finally, if you are also vaccinated against hepatitis B or tetanus, you have developed protective antibodies against these diseases. Your plasma donation will make it possible to manufacture the drugs used for the preventive treatment of people exposed to tetanus or hepatitis B (newborns whose mothers are carriers of the virus, hemodialysis patients, those with liver transplants, etc.) .
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