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Blood donation goal lofty

SHANGHAI set for itself the tough task of collecting at least 104,000 liters of blood in 2015, 12,000 liters more than last year's collection, in accordance with the five-year plan to boost blood donations and improve its clinical use.
According to plans released yesterday, the city will be able to properly meet its clinical demand only if the local donation rate reaches 2 percent.
However, Shanghai's current donation rate is only 1.32 percent of the population, just above the 1 percent alert level set by the World Health Organization. The alert means the donation rate is only able to respond to emergencies and first aid.
Encouraging donation at streetside blood collection vehicles and centers is seen as the best way to help meet the target.
Lu Yi, an official with the Shanghai Blood Administration Office, said blood shortages have become routine in the city and the increase in donations never catches up with the rise in clinical demand.

"Almost all the elective surgeries must take into account the storage of blood and patients have to wait until there is enough blood," Lu said.
Local health authorities explained that Shanghai faces many challenges in blood collection and management.
The clinical demand keeps rising due to Shanghai's better medical capability attracting patients all over the nation and the wider use of advanced technology such as organ transplants, which require a lot of blood. Yet the population structure means there are a rising number of the elderly people but a dropping proportion of donors considered ideal who are young and middle-aged.
Economic and social changes have reduced the number of people willing to donate, while the prevalence of infectious diseases also raises risk control issues.
City and district-level hospitals are required to have at least 15 percent of surgery patients to be transfused their own blood, collected before or during surgery.
The plan also requires blood centers to promote instant liver function tests and strictly screen donors to help keep the rejection rate within 3 percent and reduce the waste of blood.
"Currently, over 3 percent of blood we collect has to be rejected due to being positive to hepatitis," said Meng Yan from Shanghai Blood Center.
The Ministry of Health said the donation rate in the mainland is only 0.9 percent.



 

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