Summer is always a lean time for blood banks, but one group of donation centers said its stores of Type O in Colorado have dropped to their lowest levels in recent memory, potentially threatening patients’ access to transfusions.
Tori Robbins, communications manager for Vitalant, said the company’s centers try to keep a four-day supply on hand of all blood types, so they can be prepared for any unexpected increase in demand. In June and July, however, Vitalant’s reserves dropped to less than two days’ supply of O positive and O negative blood, and about three days’ supply of types A, B and AB.
Blood type refers to proteins on the surface of a person’s cells. If someone gets an incompatible type — say, a Type B recipient received Type A blood — it can trigger a dangerous immune reaction. Type O blood doesn’t have either A or B proteins, so anyone can receive it safely.
Regular donors are less likely to make and keep appointments during the summer and around holidays, and fewer young people give blood for the first time when high schools and colleges are closed and not holding drives, Robbins said.
Some hospitals run their own blood banks, while others purchase blood from a provider like Vitalant, which is one of the largest blood collectors in Colorado. The fee covers the cost of taking, testing, storing and shipping the blood.
“Unfortunately, those patients in the hospital don’t get to take a holiday,” she said.
While the need for Type O blood is greatest at Vitalant, donors with other types still are needed, Robbins said. O positive is the most common blood type in the United States, so if you don’t know what type you have, there’s a good chance it’s O, she said.
In June, the situation got bad enough that Vitalant regularly sent emails to prior donors warning of a blood shortage and offering a raffle prize of up to $10,000. The July incentives are more modest, though the emails still warn that patients could face delays in their transfusions.
“I’ve worked here 10 years, and that’s the first time I’ve seen that” level of incentive, Robbins said.
UCHealth’s blood donation center in Fort Collins also has faced a difficult summer.
Last year, Medical Center of the Rockies upgraded to a level one trauma center, meaning patients who had the most severe accidents are now being flown in from around the region and need blood there, said Joseph Dunn, blood donor recruiter for UCHealth. At the same time, people are making up for lost time during the pandemic, meaning they aren’t in town for blood drives, and some end up needing blood if they take too many risks, he said.
“This summer, I would say, has been more challenging than usual,” he said. “This feels like the first true summer post-COVID.”
UCHealth needs donors with all blood types and who are willing to give different blood products, though platelets are especially in demand, Dunn said. Platelets are the part of blood that allows for clotting, and patients who are undergoing cancer treatment or have certain blood diseases need them to avoid severe bleeding. It takes longer to donate platelets than whole blood, because a machine separates them out and returns the other parts of the blood to the donor’s body.
“We’re happy with whatever people are willing to give,” he said.
Not all blood centers are reporting the same level of strain. Jennifer Sipe, operations manager for Children’s Hospital Colorado’s blood bank, said they’ve been able to keep donations roughly steady. Since blood meant for children is processed differently, they collect donations solely for their own patients, she said.
“An hour of your time can make a huge difference in the life of our patients,” she said.
Children’s also has a particular need for platelet donations, Sipe said. Platelets can only be stored for about a week, which makes regular donation particularly important, she said.
While many people think of car accidents and shootings as the primary reason someone would need blood, most recipients have chronic conditions, like cancer or certain genetic blood diseases, Robbins said. That means there’s always a certain base level of need, though demand for blood does go up in the summer when people are traveling and getting into accidents, she said.
Dunn advised people who would like to donate blood to check with a blood center to see if they’re eligible. People mistakenly think they’re automatically disqualified if they traveled overseas or got a tattoo, but it depends on details like where they traveled and whether the tattoo artist was licensed, he said.
Some people who couldn’t donate because they’d spent extended time in Europe are now eligible, after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration concluded there had been no cases of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (commonly known as mad cow disease) linked to transfusions from people who’d lived overseas in the 1980s and ’90s.
The FDA also changed its rules in a way that allows more gay and bisexual men to donate. Previously, men who had sex with another man had to be celibate for three months before giving blood.
Now, people of any gender who had anal sex with a new partner or had sex with more than one person in the last three months are asked to wait before giving blood. Effectively, that means gay men who are in a monogamous relationship with someone who doesn’t have HIV are eligible to donate, reflecting that they aren’t at risk for getting or spreading the virus.
Blood banks are still updating their screening criteria to reflect the change, though, so men who have sex with men may not be able to donate immediately.
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