In recent weeks, people have seen a decline in new covid cases, which has brought in some ray of hope for the individuals, long-awaited for critical treatment.
Severe Blood Shortage Across The US; Experts Urging For Urgent Voluntary Blood Donation
People awaiting elective surgeries or suffering from accidents and injuries are facing a new challenge as the shortage of blood becomes emergent across the US.
According to the data of the AABB Interorganizational Task Force on Domestic Disaster and Acts of Terrorism, in the month of June 22, the blood supply had dropped to level “red”.
This indicates a severely scanty supply of blood in all the centers across the US.
Implications of the shortage:
The US has always seen a very high demand for donated blood and blood products for its usual patient care.
However, as the doctors are now implying, the present crisis is most severe that is forcing them to adopt triage in medical care, ensuring blood supply only for the most critical patients.
In the US, an estimated 7000 units of platelets and 36,000 units of red blood cells are needed on a daily basis.
On average, an American will need blood or blood products every 2 seconds, as implied by the Red Cross, the organization responsible for 40% of the blood supply in the US.
Blood transfusion becomes a life-saving procedure for individuals suffering from diseases like sickle cell anemia or victim of a car accident.
According to the estimation of the Red Cross, such patients alone can require almost 100 units of blood.
How grim is the condition:
As stated by Dr. Claudia Cohn, the chief medical officer at the American Association of Blood Banks, the ongoing situation of blood supply is the most worrisome.
Cohn further implies that having personal experience for several years in the field of medical blood transfusion, something similar to the current situation was never observed.
The already inadequate supply of blood is put under additional pressure because of the ongoing pandemic.
According to the data of the Red Cross, the demand for blood supply has increased by 10% and 5% in the case of hospitals having trauma centers and other transfusion facilities, respectively, compared to the demand of 2019.
The way ahead:
As the covid restrictions are relaxing and the healthcare and medical facilities are slowly returning to their normal functioning, more and more patients are turning in for their treatment and surgeries that might have been long overdue.
In the last three months, the Red Cross has supplied more than 75000 blood products to the medical facilities, which is highly unprecedented.
The recent weeks have witnessed the Red Cross functioning with half a day supply particularly with the O group blood, which has the most demand for transfusions.
Such a dramatic decline in the availability of blood is critical for the patients, hence all of them will not get the treatment that they will need.
This is forcing the doctors to reevaluate which patients need blood products earlier than the others.
Hospitals are adopting triage to screen which patients need transfusions at the earliest and who can wait.
Experts believe that if such a shortage of blood and blood products persists for a longer period of time, scheduled surgeries that were postponed owing to the pandemic can be canceled altogether.
For cancer patients on chemotherapy, requiring blood transfusion owing to chemotherapy, the treatment may get further delayed.
According to the chief medical officer of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Dr. Craig Bunell, the ongoing blood shortage is very concerning.
Bunell joins the other medical institutions in urging the people to come forward and donate blood to overcome the crisis at the earliest.
For the upcoming months, overcoming the shortage remains a crisis for the healthcare sector.
Cohn further joins the plea by adding, blood is the most important life-saving cure for millions of people, and one can ensure its steady supply only by the liberality of the donors.
