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As every year, June 14 coincides with World Blood Donor Day. After two years of Covid, the consequences of the pandemic are still very much present. More than ever, the EFS needs you. Hold out your arm!
Summer promises to be hot and difficult, and not only on the side of Météo France. On this World Blood Donor Day (JMDS), the French blood establishment (EFS) does not hide its excitement on the eve of the summer holidays. The stocks of red blood cells are at levels which must be consolidated in order to hope to approach the summer more or less calmly, testifies the director of the EFS, François Toujas: “The state of collections and stocks remains worrying”.
Reminder: 10,000 blood donations per day are needed to meet the needs. On average, 2.5 million donations are collected annually.
Lasting impacts after two years of pandemic
“Certainly, for the first time in two years, the JMDS will be held more or less normally, but the effects of the health crisis are still being felt”, observes François Toujas. In February, the EFS even reached its lowest inventory level in its entire history. “We had to issue our first vital emergency bulletin”illustrates its director.
The pandemic, by its magnitude and duration, has considerably impacted our lifestyles. During the crisis, 30% of mobile collections could not be deployed, due to the closure of universities and schools, teleworking and the difficulty of obtaining municipal halls, then requisitioned for vaccination. François Toujas figures the number of lost donations at 150,000 compared to 2019, “which represents three weeks of collections over a year”.
Recruit at all levels
All these cancellations have left their mark, especially with younger audiences.
Main objective, recruiting new donors, whose profile is now more fluctuating and needs to be retained. This year, the donation awareness campaign targets young people between the ages of 18 and 30 in particular, with the emphasis on digitalization and social networks.
Be that as it may, believes Hervé Meinrad, director of collection and production at the EFS, “we will struggle to regain donation levels comparable to those we had before the epidemic”. This is all the more true since the EFS, like the hospital, also encounters difficulties in recruiting nurses in sufficient numbers to carry out the collections.
The need to renew
To try to attract new donors and continue collections as much as possible, the French blood establishment had to innovate, by soliciting museums for event collections.
Launched last year, and given the success of this initiative, these “outside the walls” operations will be renewed next September, on the occasion of an event called “Blood donation and heritage”, a way, rejoices François Toujas, “to increase our visibility”. Similarly, a second rare blood donation awareness week will be organized next November.
Finally, a plasma plan is in preparation which should, according to the EFS, be operational within five years, in conjunction with the health authorities. The aim is to increase supply capacities in order to meet the growing needs of patients for blood-derived medicines.
Donation in practice
Due to the health crisis, making appointments online, recommended to facilitate compliance with barrier gestures, has become commonplace, even institutionalized. The French vote for it by more than 80%, reports François Toujas. The opportunity to remember that you are also invited to carry out a self-assessment of your eligibility for donation, using the questionnaire available on the EFS website. About 10% of people who go to collection sites have contraindications. For the record, you must be between 18 and 70 years old and weigh at least 50 kg for a whole blood donation. In the end, between the reception, the interview with the doctor, the sample and the snack, it takes 1 hour.
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But the most important new fact for this new edition of the JMDS is of course the removal of the reference to the sexual orientation of the blood donor for all candidates for donation, faith of the decree of January 11 , which entered into force in March.
The EFS is giving itself until July 3 to build up its reserves. The goal is 100,000 blood bags. “Below 90,000 is too low”, insists François Toujas. Stock !
To find out about the collection points in your region, go to the EFS website: https://dondesang.efs.sante.fr.