Sunday 16 June 2024 – 08:41
Encouraging numbers in Tuscany on the blood donation front. This is what emerges from the regional day dedicated precisely to the theme of donation, which took place at the headquarters of the School of Advanced Studies in Lucca.
After the pandemic, 2023 was a year of recovery with over 206 thousand donations in the region, 45 per thousand residents (only for the production of red blood cells). Numbers with which Tuscany achieved and exceeded the national target of 40. They were 116 thousand active donors during the year. But the first months of 2024 also confirm a positive trend: the growth in donations remained constant and marked a further increase of 10 percent. 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 coagulation factors.
Although the numbers are growing, there are some critical issues, primarily that of generational change: the current donors are aging but the number of those who, between the ages of 18 and 45, should replace them is decreasing.
Another critical issue concerns the decline in donations recorded in the summer period. But this year too, Tuscany is playing early to be prepared.
“With the regional blood centre, the local health authorities and the donor associations – comments the councilor for the right to health, Simone Bezzini – we have worked on a strategy to prevent an emergency from occurring in our hospitals in the summer months. 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.”
On the topic of donation, a study was also presented that the IMT of Lucca carried out together with Avis.
“The Italian transfusion system – he explains Ennio Bilancini, professor of behavioral economics at the IMT School – is based, on the one hand, on the competence and commitment of the professionals and healthcare facilities involved, and on the other on the gratuitousness and voluntariness of the donation, an act motivated first and foremost by ethical values and supported by volunteer associations. The research conducted at the IMT Scuola Alti Studi Lucca aims to provide the most modern tools to facilitate the work of healthcare professionals and structures, also using artificial intelligence, and at the same time to understand how to support and promote the values and ethics of donation, also thanks to innovative policies”.
Who can donate to whom
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).
There are four different blood groups – group A, B, Ab and zero – which double depending on the presence or absence of a specific antigen, Rh, on the surface of the red blood cells. The 0 Rh negative group is definitively universal: with some exceptions, it can be donated to any individual; but those who have it can only receive blood from an O negative donor. The rh positive AB group, on the other hand, can receive blood donations from all groups.
In Italy, the distribution varies depending on the geographical area, it is estimated that the 0 positive group is the largest and runs through the veins of 39-40 percent of the population. Immediately after there is the positive group A, found in 36 percent. This is followed by group B positive (7.5 percent), 0 negative (7 percent), AB positive (2.5 percent), A negative (6 percent), B negative (1, 5 percent) and negative AB (the rarest in Italy, with 0.5 percent of cases in the population).
