Finding blood a ‘daily battle’, donation centre chief says

August and September are the worst months for blood adequacy, especially this year, when demands are unchanged but donations are fewer due to the holiday season.

Head of the health ministry’s Blood Centre, Andri Panayiotou, sent an urgent plea through the Cyprus Mail to donors to cover the needs, especially in the rare A- and O- groups and the high demand O+.

“There is always a shortage of blood in the summer when people are away. We also had a covid spike again. We had trouble finding blood,” Panayiotou said.

“This coming week is even tougher, because there are a lot of people who have not yet returned from their holidays,” she added.

“We haven’t scheduled organised blood donations this week. We will try to get donors in through messages and phone calls.”

On a typical day, demands range between 300 and 350 bags per day across Cyprus.

“These bags cover needs arising from accidents, thalassaemic and oncological patients and surgeries,” Panayiotou explained.

She added that past summers were not so difficult, because non-urgent surgeries were put on hold, however this year theatres are running as usual and there have been quite a few accidents.

“August and September are the worst months for us,” she said.

Panayiotou also said A- and O- were not common in Cyprus, which meant that the low availability may not cover the demands of foreigners who have a higher percentage of these blood groups in their populations.

“We are trying to attract foreigners to become donors. They must be in Cyprus for the past three months, have a permanent address and a resident’s permit,” Panayiotou said.

Bags of blood have a shelf life of 42 days.

“That is why we can’t keep a huge stock. But even if we could, it would be extremely difficult. We are not a huge population,” Panayiotou said.

“We are fighting a battle every day to find the blood we need.”