The French Blood Establishment has fallen below the critical level of group O negative blood reserves in certain regions and is appealing for donations.
The French Blood Establishment (EFS) has just made a call for donations because during the month of May, stocks drop rapidly. Long weekends and school holidays tend to reduce the influx of donorshowever, to have enough reserves, 10,000 people would have to donate their blood every day.
In the Vaucluse, the alert threshold for universal type O negative reserves has been crossed, explained the director of the EFS Paca-Corse to Bleu Vaucluse, as France Bleu reports. In addition, the director of the EFS Ile-de-France, Stéphane Noël, pointed out to BFMTV a few days ago that in Paris the harvests should be 1700 donations per day, against 800 currently.
O-negative donors
The emergency is to collect type O negative blood. As a reminder, it is marked by the absence of antigens A and B which are found on the surface of our red blood cells and which serve as markers for the immune reaction. In fact, if you have B antibodies, you can only receive blood that also has them, not blood from a donor with different antibodies, namely “A”. But type O donors with no antigen can therefore distribute their blood to anyone. That’s what makes that blood precious. It can be administered urgently, without having to take the time to detect the patient’s blood type.
However, this blood group is rare, only 6% of the population are concerned. Moreover, the lifespan of blood products is short, only 42 days for red blood cellshence the need to constantly renew, insists Stéphane Noël.
As a reminder, there is an EFS application allowing you to know where to give blood around you. The establishment’s website also explains who can be a candidate, under what conditions, and offers a self-assessment form to be sure that one is a candidate for donation.
Sources: EFS, BFM TV, France Bleu