Urgent call: Blood donations are falling - this is how you can help!

Urgent call: Blood donations are falling - this is how you can help!

Blood donation facilities in North Rhine-Westphalia faces a serious challenge: the willingness to donate in young people decreases. Verena Börger from the University Clinic Essen emphasizes that this development leads to an increasing need for blood sizes in view of the aging of the population. The upcoming world blood donation day on June 14 should draw attention to this problem and encourage you to actively participate in blood donations. Last year, a decline in first donors was recorded by six percent, which further tightened the situation.

The DRK blood donation service in Ratingen warns of a threatening bottleneck in blood supply. Only three percent of the generous population actually contribute to blood supply; This number is even lower in urban regions. Despite the large number of large clinics that exist in metropolitan areas, there is a worrying development: the willingness to donate blood drops. The situation is particularly dramatic, since 60 to 70 percent of the blood canned blood collected in Essen are required for cancer patients. In addition, blood donations are essential in cases of poisoning and autoimmune diseases.

The meaning of the blood donation

It is important to emphasize that blood donations are not only life -saving for the recipients; Donors can also be dependent on blood transfusions in an emergency. In order to increase the willingness to donate, blood donation services are increasingly turning to young people via social networks in order to address this target group directly. Also outdated exclusion criteria that gave homosexual men from the blood donation have now been abolished, so that every healthy adult from the age of 18 can now donate.

Especially in summer, when many people travel or pursue leisure activities, a decline in donations is expected. This has the effect that the supplies could shrink dangerously, similar to previous years.

What are the requirements for the blood donation?

For all those who consider donating blood, there are some important information. The minimum age for a blood donation is 18 years. In addition, the state of health should be good on the day of the donation; Colds or other infections are an exclusion criterion. People who weigh at least 50 kg and physically healthy during the donation can prepare for the blood donation process.

The preparations are to eat sufficiently before the donation - low in fat - and to drink at least 1.5 liters of water. Alcohol should be dispensed with 12 hours in advance. On the day of the donation, sporting activities are also foreseeable. A donation check takes place on site, which consists, among other things, of a questionnaire and a review of blood pressure and hemoglobin value. If you do your first blood donation, you will receive a DRK blood donor card and can have your blood group determined.

The blood has a short shelf life, many preparations are only useful for a few days. In Germany, around 15,000 blood cannon are needed every day; Nevertheless, the small number of donors and the insufficient knowledge of the importance of the blood donation involves the supply situation. A fifth of all blood preparations are used to treat tumor diseases, which underlines urgency to increase the willingness to donate. The blood donation is an indispensable contribution to the health and rescue of life that everyone should consider.

The aid organizations therefore call up to share personal experiences with blood donations in order to inspire others and increase the number of active donors.