The Extremadura Blood Bank teams will travel almost 12,000 kilometers in January to collect more than 3,800 donations throughout the region

The mobile units of the Bank of Blood and Tissues of Extremadura (BSE) expect to collect more than 3,800 donations, which are equivalent to about 1,900 liters of blood, in the 59 collections that will be carried out throughout the regional territory during the month of January 2021.

The aforementioned teams of the Extremadura Health Service, which will begin their tours tomorrow, Saturday, the 2nd in the towns of Carcaboso and Zahínos, will travel about 12,000 kilometers on their trips to the 48 towns they will visit, some of them on several occasions, such as Miajadas, Oliva de la Frontera (3), and Aceuchal, Alburquerque, Azuaga, Badajoz, Los Santos de Maimona, Navalmoral de la Mata and Valverde de Leganés (2).

PHONE APPOINTMENT

Donors may request an appointment to make their donation at any of the locations that the BSE mobile units visit daily, by calling 924314686, from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., where they will be assigned a specific time slot to avoid the crowds that usually occur in collections, especially at the first and last minute.

Since last summer, the Bank has detected the presence or absence of antibodies against Covid-19 in the donations it receives, thanks to the serological study it carries out, a work initially designed to determine the spread of the virus in each area of ​​the region.

After dividing the different blood components as usual, he also obtains a unit of hyperimmune plasma from each convalescent Covid-19 donor, which according to the results of the study is almost 3% of the donors, although many of them did not even know that they had after the disease, and it is the Blood Bank itself that communicates it.

SEROLOGICAL STUDY

The Blood Bank has maintained its activity uninterruptedly throughout the health crisis caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, collecting donations with its teams from mobile units throughout the regional territory for six days a week, as every year.

Since the health crisis caused by the coronavirus began, those responsible for the BSE have had to modify the usual procedures and practices of the collections to adapt to the rules and recommendations on hygiene and social distance, adopting measures such as reducing the number of stretchers for donors in small premises, or moving to more spacious places than usual.

Any healthy person, between 18 and 65 years of age, who is in good health and weighs a minimum of 50 kg, can donate blood, although there are situations that contraindicate donation, either because they could cause harm to the donor ( people with anemia, pregnant women, women who are breastfeeding, etc.), either because they could pose a risk to the recipient (history of hepatitis or AIDS, belonging to risk groups for this type of disease, taking certain drugs, etc.) .

EXTREMADURA BLOOD AND TISSUE BANK

The Extremadura Blood and Tissue Bank began operating in 2002 as a Community Transfusion Center, with the aim of obtaining, processing and distributing quality blood components to all hospitals in the region.

It has a staff of 44 professionals and has its physical headquarters in Mérida, although its scope of action is regional, both with regard to obtaining blood (with more than 300 collection points in towns, work centers, educational institutions, etc.) and distribution, since it deals with the supply of all blood products that are transfused in the Community, both in public and private centers.

On a daily basis, four transport vehicles distribute the blood products requested by the health centers in the region, and in addition to this scheduled distribution, they attend an average of three urgent requests a day from the hospital centers.

The attached document offers a complete list of the populations that the mobile units will visit, specifying the place, date and time of the collections in each location.

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