The German Red Cross is looking for new, regular blood donors to compensate for the gradually retiring baby boomer generation. “Only if younger people born after 1990 and also middle-aged people can be persuaded to donate blood in the future can the solidarity-based supply system be maintained in the long term and the blood supply thus secured in the future,” said Kerstin Schweiger, spokeswoman for the DRK blood donation service North-East, to the German Press Agency. This is responsible for Berlin, Brandenburg, Hamburg, Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein.
In the coming years, it will become noticeable that many donors from the high-donor baby boomer generation (born between 1955 and 1969) will drop out, explained Schweiger. “Blood donors will then potentially become recipients, which will also increase the need for blood products.”
The willingness to donate blood in the five federal states is highest in the 55 to 64 age group, with 25.4 percent of all donors, followed by 45 to 54 year olds (21.8 percent). Only 11.1 percent of all donors are 24 years old and younger. The rate of first-time donors in all five states combined was 8.7 percent. In Saxony, a value of 5.8 percent was registered. Here, the number of first-time donors fell by almost 300 to 8,470.
Focus on younger people
The focus is on mobilizing younger population groups in order to ensure the supply of blood products in the long term, emphasized Schweiger. The DRK Blood Donation Service North-East is therefore offering a large number of appointments at universities and vocational training centers to specifically raise awareness of the issue among young people.
According to the German Red Cross, around 20 percent of blood reserves are needed for cancer patients alone. The platelets that are important for this patient group therefore only last four days. However, the depots of the German Red Cross Blood Donation Service North-East must also have sufficient quantities of the six-week-long shelf life of red blood cell concentrates, the so-called erythrocyte concentrates, across all blood groups, Schweiger emphasized.
Only then could patients in medical emergency situations, but also those who, due to other serious illnesses, often require blood on a regular basis over a long period of time, be supplied.
