Since the Covid-19 health crisis, the Red Cross has suffered a shortage of blood donors. The organisation has put out a call for more donors in Belgium on Thursday.
While there were 22,500 donors in 2019, the number decreased to 17,000 in 2024. "In 2020, 2021, and 2022, a large number of blood drives could no longer be organised. It became almost impossible to organise them in schools or companies," explained Thomas Paulus, the Red Cross' communications manager. "In total, 27,500 new donors were not recruited."
In the years following the pandemic, the Red Cross continued to face challenges in recruiting new donors. One of the issues is that more than half of the students who used to donate blood in schools had finished their studies.
Additionally, most companies have introduced teleworking, complicating initiatives like blood drives. Holiday periods also remain problematic for building up blood reserves.
"We cannot store [blood] for long periods. Blood is a perishable product. A bag of red blood cells must be used within 42 days. For platelets, we are talking about five days, from which we must subtract 1.5 days for the treatment necessary to make the bag usable and transfusable. As platelets are largely produced from blood donations, it is crucial to have a constant supply," added Paulus.
To meet the increasingly specific demands of hospitals, more blood donors need to be recruited. More information about blood donation can be found on the Belgian Red Cross website.
