Health softens the criteria for donating blood after passing the Covid due to the shortage of reserves

The Ministry of Health has decided to lower the criteria established to donate blood after having passed the

.

The change in the protocols is due to the

, which threatens to slow down the activity of hospitals and the certainty that there is no transmission of SARS-CoV-2 through blood.

Asymptomatic

that have confirmed the Covid infection will be able to donate seven days after diagnosis, according to the new indications of the Scientific Committee on Transfusion Safety that the newspaper El País has advanced.

Until now, these donors had to wait 14 days to be able to go to the Transfusion Centers.

In the case of donors who do have symptoms of the infection, the new criteria establish that "each Transfusion Center will evaluate reducing the exclusion to 7 days in the event that it is considered mild."

On the other hand, according to the new protocol, the Transfusion Centers will ask the donor that "if during the 48 hours post-donation they obtain a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 disease, they notify the extraction center".

"The

, which is compromising the supply of blood components, the non-linkage of SARS-CoV-2 transmission with transfusion, and the need to harmonize the management criteria established by the health authorities, require adapting the criteria selection of donors contemplated up to now", indicates the Committee in the justification for the change of criteria.

Christmas and the thousands of infections by the

have reduced blood reserves to alarming levels in many communities, which have launched urgent appeals to the population to come and donate and prevent health from being paralyzed by having to suspend interventions, emergencies or transplants.

Andalusia, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Madrid or La Rioja are some of the communities that have launched

for blood donation, which usually drops at Christmas, and which this year has also been affected by the exponential increase in infections of covid-19, with the arrival of the most contagious variant, which directly influences blood donors.

This has been explained by Luisa Barea, managing director of the Transfusion Center of the Community of Madrid, stressing that the decrease in donations does not correspond to that of the transfusions necessary in the surgeries that continue to be performed.

Appeal for donation

Although he acknowledges that the pandemic "has left us all very tired", he has claimed to make "a great effort because we have no other choice, since blood is a resource that cannot be obtained in any other way".

"That is why we call for donation. Without blood, healthcare will be paralyzed. Interventions, emergency care or transplants could not be carried out," for which it is urgent to put "the focus on the patient who needs it and who is not can let you down."

In the last few hours, the Andalusian Network of Transfusion Medicine has launched an appeal to continue guaranteeing the needs of health centers after Christmas.

The Board stresses that it needs "blood from all groups, without exception."

A need that Madrid also has, which demands blood donations of types 0-, A-, B-, 0+ and A+.

According to those responsible for health in Madrid,

and are not recovering, since a minimum of 900 are required per day and just over 700 are being registered.

In the Balearic Islands, the Blood and Tissue Bank of the Islands has warned that the shortage of blood "seriously compromises the health care of patients".

This community currently only gets half of the 200 donations it needs and warns that the number of new donors has been reduced by 5,000 since the start of the pandemic.

The Canarian Institute of Hemodonation and Hemotherapy (ICHH) in the Canary Islands urges the donation of blood of all blood groups, especially A+, O+ and O-, which have registered a

It also needs reserves from all groups, especially from Group A-, the Blood Bank of La Rioja due to the 22% drop in donations at Christmas.

The technicians of this center explain that their permanent need for blood donations is due to

, since (platelets have a useful life of 5 to 7 days and red blood cells 42 days.

Currently, the requirements to be able to donate blood are: being between 18 and 65 years old and weighing 50 kilograms or more, not suffering from chronic diseases or having an acute infection, not having anemia and not carrying out risky practices that facilitate contagion of diseases, such as hepatitis, syphilis or HIV.

It is mandatory to go with the DNI or document that accredits them and it is convenient not to go fasting.

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