Record in blood donors in 2018

Blood donor at the blood bank at the St. Olavs Hospital in Trondheim, NorwayBlood donor at the blood bank at the St. Olavs Hospital in Trondheim, Norway.Photo: Gorm Kallestad / SCANPIX

Record increase in blood donors in 2018

Throughout the year, 36,000 blood donors have been recruited to the country’s blood banks through the Red Cross. This is an increase of 5,000 from 2017, the Norwegian Red Cross states.

“Without blood donors, vital patient care could have stopped. People who give blood help people in vulnerable situations to have life-saving access to blood when they are suddenly seriously injured or ill. Thousands of Norwegians live today because someone made the decision and time to become a blood donor,” says adviser in the Red Cross Blood Program, Elizabeth Salas Andreassen, in a press release.

As of today, there are about 100,000 blood donors in Norway, which accounts for only two per cent of the Norwegian population.

Need more

The fact that record numbers have found their way to the blood banks around is not enough, because there is still a need for more blood donors, the Red Cross emphasizes.

“A single victim of a serious traffic accident may need nearly one hundred units of blood products,” Andreassen concludes.

According to the Red Cross, about 30,000 more donors are needed. At the same time, the approximately 15,000 and 20,000 blood donors who each year stop for natural reasons such as age, relocation, medicine use, illness or the like must be replaced.


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