Amid flu fears, blood donations are running out

From: The Korea Herald | Nov. 03, 2009
By: Lee Ji-yoon

The nation is facing a shortage in donated blood supply as people refrain from giving blood due to growing fears about the H1N1 flu virus, health officials said yesterday.

According to the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs, national blood centers had stored a seven-day supply for routine transfusion demands until September.

However, the blood stockpile started decreasing last month, standing at a three-day supply as of Oct. 30. Especially, type A with a 1.9-day supply and the type O with a 1.4-day supply are fast running out, health officials said.

"The decrease in blood donors is largely driven by dropping group donations at schools. So far, a total of 25,000 organizations have cancelled their previously planned blood donations," said Sohn Young-rae, a senior official at the ministry's public healthcare division.

The number of blood donors at high schools was 20,519 in October, less than half of the 42,466 in the same period last year.

"Because the collected blood is stored only for a limited period, people's temporary hesitation to donate blood can be directly linked to a sudden decrease in blood supply," said Park Qu-ehn, director of blood management at Korean Red Cross.

"Some private clinics have started complaining of a lack of blood. The blood supply situation has already entered a serious stage," he added, asking the public's cooperation in maintaining a stable supply.

Even though the flu virus is a respiratory disease, fear of getting the disease has deterred some potential donors here. According to the ministry, there has been no reported case of the virus being contracted through blood transfusion so far.

"It is possible that the flu virus could circulate within the blood of a severely ill patient infected with the new flu. However, in that case, donating blood is not allowed by health officials," said Sohn.

"Also, a flu patient can donate blood seven days after having recovered form the flu infection. And a vaccine recipient can give blood 24 hours after the injection," he said.

In order to maintain the current three-day supply, health authorities started operating blood centers nationwide under an emergency management system. And blood donations will be more encouraged, mainly in the military.

As of yesterday, the disease has killed a total of 40 people and hospitalized thousands here.

According to a weekly influenza surveillance report issued yesterday, the influenza-like-illness rate was 20.29, more than doubled from 9.26 the previous week.

No variant strain of the virus or resistance to antiviral drugs has been recorded, health officials said.

"Considering the steep increase in the ILI rate, the virus is expected to continue gaining strength in the coming three to four weeks," said Choi Hee-joo, senior official at the ministry.

Amid speculation that the government is considering raising its alert level any time soon, Choi added that there would be an announcement Tuesday afternoon after meetings of related ministries.