National blood stocks drop to below critical level

ANKARA

The national blood stock has fallen below the minimum level due to the devastating earthquakes in February, an official from the Turkish Red Crescent has said, warning that only a three-day blood stock is left.

Announcing that the blood supply in the country is decreasing at a critical level, Saim Kerman called on citizens to donate blood.

Kerman reminded that the earthquakes jolted a quite large area, stressing that the quakes affected potential blood donors in the area, which also reflects the total blood stocks.

“Massive destruction took place in many provinces and we also lost our potential blood donors. At the same time, our staff living in the region also became victims of the earthquake. Therefore, we started to receive extremely low levels of blood from the region during February and March,” Kerman explained.

Reminding that a considerable amount of blood was donated in other regions immediately after the earthquakes, Kerman said that the number of blood donations in regions other than 11 provinces until the beginning of Ramadan compensated for the deficiency in earthquake regions.

Kerman stated that there has been a noticeable decrease in blood donations since the beginning of Ramadan, saying this situation, combined with the current post-earthquake conditions, caused this shortage.

“Every year during Ramadan, our blood stocks start to decrease. In Ramadan, people avoid donating blood due to the concern of breaking their fast. This situation happened again in this Ramadan,” he said.

“The target figure [regarding blood donation] for this year is 3,040,000 units. I’m starting to think that we would not be able to get the figure because we experienced a big earthquake.”

As of April 8, the number of blood stock is 20,600 units, which corresponds to a three-day stock, Kerman noted.

Responding to the blood sales allegations, Kerman stated that the sale of blood was prohibited by a law enacted in 2007.