Lack of donor blood in the midst of summer

Rotary Club in District 7260 goes on the web to call its first blood drive as blood supplies in New York City and metropolitan areas are down to a dangerously low levels.

The supplies of donor blood in New York City and metropolitan areas have dropped to dangerously low levels, raising concerns that hospitals do not have enough blood to cope with a major emergency, blood donation officials have warned.

In the New York suburbs of Long Island - the largest island in mainland USA with more than 7,5 million people and two international airports, John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia - a local Rotary Club has answered the call for donor blood and holds its first blood donor drive.

The Rotary Club of Huntington Station,  District 7260, has announced a blood drive to take place in the town of Melville, Saturday September 8, 2007. For the occasion, the club has provided a special blood drive homepage, also including an electronic pledge form.

According to Long Island Blood Services, a Division of New York Blood Center, only two per cent of the region's population donates blood each year, compared to the national American average of five per cent. Furthermore, statistics show that 70 percent of the donor corps only donates  once a year and 50 percent does not return the following year.

"We are down to a one-day supply in some of the critical areas like Type O Negative," said Robert L. Jones, president of the New York Blood Center. The NYBC is one of the country's largest non-profit community-based blood centers.

The shortages are partly due to low turnout at blood donation drives this summer, donation officials said. City blood supplies are among the lowest in the past five to seven years, the NYBC president said. People who would like to donate blood can do so at more than 75 locations in the New York and New Jersey area. (To find a donation center or blood drive nearby call 800-933-BLOOD or go to www.nybloodcenter.org ).

"New York Blood Center / Long Island Blood Services are forced to import approximately 50,000 pints of blood each year from other blood centers in the United States, because we can't independently meet the demand," the Long Island Blood Services stipulates.

Don't stay away from the Long Island Rotary blood donation event out of fear of not finding a parking lot: RC Huntington Station promises at its website, that "There is ample parking at the facility for your convenience. We will also have provisions to watch any children that may be with you."

Long Island Blood Services is a pipeline to the 50 Long Island hospitals. Donors must be age 16-75 (16 with written parental permission; 76+ accepted with a doctor's note), weigh a minimum of 110 pounds and be in general good health. It is safe to donate whole blood every 56 days (up to six times per year). Platelets can be donated every 3 days (up to 24 times per year), and plasma every 28 days. At the time of donation, donors must have either photo or signed identification and know their social security number.

New York Blood Center provides life-saving blood products and clinical and transfusion services to close to 200 hospitals in New York and New Jersey each and every day. The potential population served by NYBC totals close to 20 million people.