Low Altruism Levels in Blood Donations: Only 3% in Hidalgo

Pachuca, Hgo. In Hidalgo only three percent of blood donations is for altruism; the remaining 97 percent is family replacement or compliance with some donation process that is required of relatives of hospitalized patients.

This was reported in an interview for La Jornada by Antonio Eduardo Gutiérrez Rodríguez, director of the State Center for Blood Transfusion (CETS) of the Hidalgo State Health Secretariat (SSH).

Despite the low voluntary donation, according to Antonio Eduardo Gutiérrez “there is no shortage of blood” in the entity, although he pointed out that it would be good for people to approach CETS on their own, in order to do so altruistically. and not only to comply with the process of donating when a family member is hospitalized.

He said that CETS receives an average of between 12,000 and 12,500 donations per year .

In the informative talk that the social workers give to the donors before starting the blood collection process, they are informed that at CETS they have the option of donating whole blood or platelets.

Given the importance of platelets in the biochemical coagulation process that some patients require, to encourage people to donate, the CETS established that each platelet donation is equivalent to three whole blood donations.

Antonio Eduardo Gutiérrez explained that at CETS, 450 milliliters of whole blood and each bag of blood fluid are extracted from each blood donor. Through biochemical separation processes, litrocyte concentrate, platelet concentrate, and frozen plasma are obtained. “Each one of them has a different utility in the body,” he added.

He explained that 17 hospitals in the health sector, the Integral Development System for the Family, the Red Cross, and more than one hundred private clinics send candidates for donation to CETS on a regular basis.

Finally, he said that there are false “myths” or “beliefs” among people that discourage them from donating blood, including that people who donate blood gain weight after donating; that they are going to get HIV, AIDS, hepatitis and other diseases, which he said “are totally false, since disposable material is used for each donation.”