For blood donations in Tuscany after the pandemic, 2023 was a year of recovery and the quota of 206 thousand was exceeded, 45 per thousand residents (only for the production of red blood cells) compared to a national target of 40. success whose first credit goes to the 116 thousand donors active during the year. At a national level, only 2.7% of Italians are donors: the data are from the National Blood Center and refer to 2022, compared to 2.8 million transfusions benefiting 639 thousand patients. This is what emerged on the occasion of the regional blood donation day which took place this year in Lucca, in the headquarters of the IMT High Studies School, which also carried out a study together with Avis on the two-year period 2018-2020.
The trend recorded in the first months of 2024 is also positive in Tuscany. The growth in donations remained constant and marked a further increase of 10%: for red blood cells, where Italy has achieved self-sufficiency, but also for plasma, where donations are historically less but important because they are fundamental for the production of life-saving drugs such as immunoglobulins, albumin or clotting factors. Growing numbers, it is underlined, but there are still critical issues of a demographic nature (but not only) that cannot be overlooked: donors are aging and those who, between eighteen and forty-five years of age, should replace them are decreasing. Generational change is not enough. Then there is the question of summer, a period in which there is a physiological decline in donations and blood begins to run low.
However, in Tuscany in 2023, explains the Region, “thanks to the careful and coordinated work of all the players in the Tuscan blood system, no emergency situations were recorded and the blood system operated in self-sufficiency”. “This year too we have been ahead of the game – comments the Tuscan councilor for the right to health Simone Bezzini -. With the regional blood centre, the local health authorities and the donor associations we have worked on a strategy to prevent this from occurring in the summer months. an emergency in our hospitals. A summer without blood loss means no slowdown on the healthcare system, but also careful work on the appropriate use of this precious resource and the health of patients”.
The Region reminds you that blood donation is open to all citizens, Italian and foreign. You must be at least eighteen years old and no more than seventy, have good health, have a correct lifestyle and be of adequate weight. The presence of certain pathologies, ongoing therapies, recent travel or operations may lead to permanent exclusion or temporary suspension from donation. You can donate at three-month intervals (but no more than twice a year for women of childbearing age).
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