The French Blood calls for donations, after declining stocks

Written by Sandeep Nehra

The French Blood Establishment (EFS), which manages donations and stocks of blood products, launched Monday a campaign for blood donations following a decline in stocks during the period of strikes which puts him in a difficult position to Christmas Eve.

Under the influence of social movements and transportation problems, “we had until last week much less on our donor collection sites and in our blood drives,” told AFP the president of the EFS Gerard Tobelem.

Traditionally the holiday season is difficult for blood donation, but he notes, the stock is already only 11 days and could still go down by Monday at 9 or 10 days. Already the Ile de France, a region still more fragile than others, is nine days of inventory.

The situation is also heterogeneous, with regions of unusually low as Burgundy, Franche-Comté, Champagne and Lorraine, while the west has been resilient.

According to Gerard Tobelem, the comfort level to address the Christmas period is 14 days of inventory, not so for the period itself, since many interventions are delayed, but by early January, “when interventions leave strong and we may be in a critical situation. ”

To inflate the stock before the Christmas period, a radio spot will be aired until November 21. The EFS has also created a flyer in black and red, directly inspired by advertisements for perfumes. It shows a woman beside a bottle on which is inscribed: “Life by Vincent, 32, 0 °”. “Thanks to him I saw. Take a rare and precious gift,” says the accompanying text. Because “giving blood means giving life.”

You can download the flyer for the campaign on the website of the EFS, www.dondusang.net, where we also find the addresses of sites fixed and mobile blood collection.

The EFS recalls one million patients are treated each year through blood donation. In 2009 there were 1.7 million donors (including 420,000 new donors this year) who have completed 3 million in grants. The life of blood products is 42 days for red cells, and only 5 days for platelets.

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