The 56th Assembly of Avis Emilia-Romagna Members will be held in Ravenna. A non-random choice, one year after the serious flood that hit these territories, to demonstrate the closeness of the regional headquarters to the local Avis.
After the greetings of the regional and provincial presidents Maurizio Pirazzoli and Marco Bellenghi, speeches will be made by Michele De Pascale Mayor of Ravenna, Raffaele Donini Regional Councilor for Health Policies, Rino Biguzzi, Director of the Regional Blood Center and representatives of the other blood donation associations, of Thalassemia and Hemophilia patients and the Third Sector.
Avis is a non-profit association that pursues a public interest: ensuring adequate availability of blood and plasma to all patients who need it. It bases its activity on the principles of democracy, free social participation and on volunteering as a central and irreplaceable element of human solidarity. Blood and plasma donors are voluntary, anonymous and unpaid.
As of December 2023, Avis members in Emilia-Romagna are approximately 153,000 and actual donors are just under 150,000. During the year, 199,000 units of whole blood and 63,000 units of plasma were donated, used by the Regional Health Service for patients who need blood or for the production of plasma-derived drugs essential for the treatment of numerous pathologies.
Thanks to the generous gesture of many donors, to the dense network of offices and associative volunteers, and to the judicious use of the blood collected by healthcare facilities, for years now our region has achieved self-sufficiency and the units eliminated due to overdating (over 45 days) are reduced to the physiological minimum.
On plasma, however, a further commitment is needed to ensure that every patient suffering from pathologies that require the use of plasma-derived life-saving drugs can count on plasma collected from periodic and unpaid donors. The self-sufficiency of these products has ethical, economic and health implications, because it frees the Regional Health System from dependence on pharmaceutical multinationals, from which today it is still necessary to purchase part of the plasma-derived drugs.
Already last year Avis Emilia-Romagna was second in Italy for total kg of plasma collected and first for kg collected per 1000 inhabitants among the most populous regions. The goal of self-sufficiency on such an important collection for public health is within reach and Avis will work to achieve it during the year, in collaboration with the Regional Blood Center and with the entire regional blood system network.
But the solidarity of Avis Emilia-Romagna does not remain confined to the region: every year around 8,000 units of blood are sent to hospitals in those regions that do not reach self-sufficiency: Tuscany, Lazio, Campania and Sicily, where a permanent agreement is in place with the decentralized headquarters of the Rizzoli orthopedic workshops in Bagheria. A few months ago, 500,000 units of factor VIII for coagulation which exceed the national requirement were sent under the coordination of the National Blood Center to help hemophilia patients in the Gaza Strip, and other international solidarity projects with the shipment of plasma-derived drugs are underway with the Children’s Hospital of El Salvador. Unfortunately, the collaboration with the Kabul Hospital had to be interrupted due to the return to power of the Taliban regime.
