Critical shortfall in blood supplies
By Wang Qingchu |
October 20, 2010, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
KUNMING in southwest China is facing a critical blood shortage due to high demand and low donations - a situation that postponed almost all surgeries requiring blood transfusion except for emergency operations.
The daily blood stock in Kunming Blood Center stands at just over 100,000 milliliters, compared with a target daily supply of 400,000 to 450,000ml. The total supply has reached a record low, with type AB barely covering demand and other types running low, according to a doctor at the center, Shandong Business Daily reported yesterday.
"We can only provide blood for emergency operations. All surgeries that can be postponed are put back," said two staff members at the blood center, which supplies blood to over 200 local hospitals.
The situation, which has been going on for more than three months in Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province, forced doctors to postpone surgical procedures which require large amounts of donor blood.
Doctors have had to ask patients' relatives to donate blood, the report said.
"We are running out of solutions. The blood supply is very limited. We can't do chest operations, which need an abundant blood supply," a doctor said, adding that they now have to ask patients to wait - based on their conditions - or let relatives donate blood for them.
Reasons for the shortage include higher demand from more advanced procedures and a drop in voluntary donations. Many universities have been relocated to suburban areas, which means fewer university students, who regularly donate, come to the city to make donations.
Blood shortages occur every year during Spring Festivals and major public holidays when students and migrant workers go back home, a staff member at the center said.
Very few people have been coming to the center to donate blood for the past several months: 30-40 a day at its peak and sometimes less than 10, said employees at the center.
To ease the shortfall, the blood center has sent text messages to 50,000 local residents, calling for more donors and dispatched more blood collection vehicles to nearby regions. A new collection station has been set up in suburban areas with a number of university campuses to secure more stable blood source.
The daily blood stock in Kunming Blood Center stands at just over 100,000 milliliters, compared with a target daily supply of 400,000 to 450,000ml. The total supply has reached a record low, with type AB barely covering demand and other types running low, according to a doctor at the center, Shandong Business Daily reported yesterday.
"We can only provide blood for emergency operations. All surgeries that can be postponed are put back," said two staff members at the blood center, which supplies blood to over 200 local hospitals.
The situation, which has been going on for more than three months in Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province, forced doctors to postpone surgical procedures which require large amounts of donor blood.
Doctors have had to ask patients' relatives to donate blood, the report said.
"We are running out of solutions. The blood supply is very limited. We can't do chest operations, which need an abundant blood supply," a doctor said, adding that they now have to ask patients to wait - based on their conditions - or let relatives donate blood for them.
Reasons for the shortage include higher demand from more advanced procedures and a drop in voluntary donations. Many universities have been relocated to suburban areas, which means fewer university students, who regularly donate, come to the city to make donations.
Blood shortages occur every year during Spring Festivals and major public holidays when students and migrant workers go back home, a staff member at the center said.
Very few people have been coming to the center to donate blood for the past several months: 30-40 a day at its peak and sometimes less than 10, said employees at the center.
To ease the shortfall, the blood center has sent text messages to 50,000 local residents, calling for more donors and dispatched more blood collection vehicles to nearby regions. A new collection station has been set up in suburban areas with a number of university campuses to secure more stable blood source.
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