Current events have an impact on participation in blood collections: holidays, strikes or even the weather can change the behavior of the French and therefore of donors. In recent weeks it is the fuel shortage that has been in question: a large number of donors have been forced to cancel their appointment for a blood donation, for not being able to move. As a result, the blood supply decreased rapidly. Herv Meinrad, director of collection and production at the French blood institute (EFS), explains: In these times of reduced frequency, the EFS cannot hold its reserves too long, because blood products have a short duration. You have to collect 10,000 donations every day.
If the gasoline situation gradually returns to normal, the EFS hopes that the vacation period will be synonymous with time available to donors and / or future ones. The shelf life of blood products is limited to seven days for platelets and 42 days for red blood cells. This means that, in order to guarantee each patient the blood component they need, the level of collection must be regular. For this, the mobilization for the donation of blood must be daily. Every day 10,000 donations are needed to treat patients for whom blood transfusions are the only therapeutic response (traffic accidents in case of haemorrhage, cancer patients, genetic diseases, leukemia, etc.).
To find out where to donate and / or make an appointment, visit the dondesang.efs.sante.fr website or the Don de sang app.
