Current:Home > ScamsRed Cross blood inventory plummets 25% in July, impacted by heat and record low donations -EliteFunds
Red Cross blood inventory plummets 25% in July, impacted by heat and record low donations
View
Date:2025-04-15 07:13:11
The American Red Cross declared an emergency blood shortage as the organization reported that blood inventory plummeted more than 25% in July.
The Red Cross said in a press release that heat had impacted almost 100 blood drives across the country in July as it braces for further disruptions caused by hurricanes.
The Red Cross said that the impending storms could, "result in additional blood drive cancellations and lower donor turnout, threatening an already low blood supply."
The weather-related impacts come on top of anticipated summer reductions in blood donations caused by vacation travel and other summer activities.
"Blood cannot be manufactured or stockpiled and can only be made available through the kindness of volunteer donors," the Red Cross said. "It’s the blood on the shelves now that helps during an emergency."
Type O blood rationed
Demands for blood from hospitals remained constant, according to the Red Cross, causing the organization to reduce distributions of type O blood to below hospital comfort levels.
Dr. Baia Lasky, division chief medical officer for the Red Cross, said that type O blood was the most common blood group used in transfusions.
"More than a quarter of all blood products each year are used in critical care and emergency room situations — those transfusions are only available because of the generosity of blood and platelet donors," Lasky said.
Red Cross reports lowest blood donor numbers ever
The disruptions come as only 6.8 million Americans gave blood once in 2023, the lowest number the Red Cross has seen. The organization said in a January press release that in the past 20 years donorship has fallen by 40%.
"When fewer people donate blood, even small disruptions to the nation’s supply are hard to overcome," the Red Cross said.
The record lows come over a year after the FDA removed restrictions on men who have sex with men giving blood.
The Red Cross is offering $20 Amazon gift cards to those who donate blood in August.
veryGood! (4643)
Related
- Which apps offer encrypted messaging? How to switch and what to know after feds’ warning
- Horoscopes Today, September 15, 2023
- Chiefs overcome mistakes to beat Jaguars 17-9, Kansas City’s 3rd win vs Jacksonville in 10 months
- Son of former Mexican cartel leader El Chapo extradited to U.S.
- In ‘Nickel Boys,’ striving for a new way to see
- Inside Deion Sanders' sunglasses deal and how sales exploded this week after criticism
- Gunmen kill a member of Iran’s paramilitary force and wound 3 others on protest anniversary
- Iranian authorities detain Mahsa Amini's father on 1-year anniversary of her death
- Nearly 400 USAID contract employees laid off in wake of Trump's 'stop work' order
- The auto workers strike will drive up car prices, but not right away -- unless consumers panic
Ranking
- Apple iOS 18.2: What to know about top features, including Genmoji, AI updates
- Billy Miller, The Young & the Restless and General Hospital Star, Dead at 43
- Comedian Russell Brand denies allegations of sexual assault published by three UK news organizations
- Anchorage scrambles to find enough housing for the homeless before the Alaska winter sets in
- Which apps offer encrypted messaging? How to switch and what to know after feds’ warning
- EU pledges crackdown on ‘brutal’ migrant smuggling during visit to overwhelmed Italian island
- Rapper Flo Rida uses fortune, fame to boost Miami Gardens residents, area where he was raised
- Hundreds protest against the Malaysian government after deputy premier’s graft charges were dropped
Recommendation
US appeals court rejects Nasdaq’s diversity rules for company boards
Small plane crashes in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, killing all 14 people on board
1-year-old boy dead, 3 other children hospitalized after incident at Bronx day care
Christian Coleman wins 100 with a world lead time of 9.83 and Noah Lyles takes second.
Military service academies see drop in reported sexual assaults after alarming surge
Top EU official heads to an Italian island struggling with migrant influx as Italy toughens stance
NYC day care owner, neighbor arrested after 1-year-old dies and 3 others are sickened by opioids
Snow, scorpions, Dr. Seuss: What Kenyan kids talked about with top U.S. kids' authors