“French Blood Establishment urgently calls for O negative donors during long weekend and public holidays”

With the approach of a new long weekend and in a month dotted with public holidays, the French Blood Establishment (EFS) launched a new call for donors on Thursday, in particular those of the O negative group.

In May, “with the 4 public holidays and bridges, more than 25,000 blood bags will not be collected by the EFS teams. However, during this period, patients continue to need blood products to be cared for,” EFS said in a statement.

And the shelf life of blood products is limited: 7 days for platelets, 42 days for red blood cells.

Some 10,000 donations are needed every day to treat patients, for whom transfusions are essential, according to the establishment.

“For several weeks, the blood reserves have remained stable overall, but the pockets of one blood group have decreased sharply: group O, and in particular O rhesus negative”, specified the EFS.

O- group donors (known as “universal donors”), who represent only 6% of the population, have red blood cells that can be transfused to all patients, regardless of their blood group. They can only be transfused with blood cells of their own blood type.

A list of collection points can be viewed on the dondesang.efs.sante.fr website or on the Don de sang app.