Missing blood donations in Bavaria: “It’s about averting the emergency”
AZ: Mr. Nohe, a few days ago the blood donation service of the BRK sent out a call for help because the number of blood donations is well below the number employed. How dramatic is the situation now?
PATRIC NOHE: It is still dramatic in that we can only slowly start to fill up our buffers. The call for help means that the appointments for the coming days are busy for the time being. Nevertheless, we are looking forward to the summer with great concern, as there is currently no sign of an increase in demand.
“Preserved blood can only be kept for 42 days”
Why is there such a high demand for blood now?
The reason why there is an increased need is the surgeries that have been postponed due to the pandemic. However, there is generally a high demand for blood donations. We need the most blood for chronically ill people. At the same time, we have the problem that blood preserves can only be kept for 42 days. That is why it is so important that we bring continuity to the donations. Hence my request: If people say I would like to donate tomorrow or the day after and see that the dates in Munich, for example, are reserved, then: take the next available one. We still need blood in four, six and eight weeks.
What is the probability that I will not receive a blood donation at this time if I need one?
It goes towards zero, the emergency supply is guaranteed. And in the coming days it looks a bit like improvement. But we are very careful, because reservations are not yet expenses. We’ve also had to struggle with no-shows, i.e. appointments that were announced but people didn’t show up for. That can happen again and again, my only request is that you cancel the appointment. We do not have an acute state of emergency, but it is still a matter of averting an acute state of emergency.
“We just have more competition again”
Are people donating particularly little blood this year?
We always struggle with a decline, especially in the summer, but this year it’s already there. We experience the first summer with almost no corona measures. People are very hungry to savor this – understandably. The travel season has started earlier, the hotels are fully reserved for the summer, festivals and folk festivals are taking place again. We just have more competition again.
Was it different during the pandemic?
At the height of the pandemic, we never had any problems finding enough donors. But one must not forget that people now have a completely different everyday life and have more obligations. We’re the last to blame anyone. The only important thing now is that we get the mix right again and say: It’s great that you’re going to festivals, it’s great that you’re going on vacation, but we have to make sure that we find slots that have time for the blood donation is.
“For us, the protection of donors and recipients is our top priority”
On the one hand you want to attract more donors, but on the other hand there are still people who are not allowed to donate blood. Until 2021, gay and bisexual men were only allowed to donate if they had been abstinent for one year. The time limit for “risky sexual behavior” has now been reduced to four months. The discrimination remains, says the German Aidshilfe. How do you feel about this?
Of course, the twelve months were a bit alien to life. If new scientific findings lead to more people being allowed to donate blood, then that is absolutely welcome. For us at the Bavarian Red Cross and as a blood donation service, it doesn’t matter where a person comes from or who they love. But: For us, the protection of donors, but also of the often seriously ill recipients, is our top priority. And for this we are dependent on the regulations of the German Medical Association and scientific findings.
What is the reason for this regulation, according to which men who have sex with men are not allowed to have a new sexual partner within four months?
We test our blood supplies extensively, but there is a so-called diagnostic window in which, after a fresh infection, neither the virus nor the antibodies are sufficiently present to be detected. In the new HIV infection statistics from the Robert Koch Institute, between 60 and 70 percent of all new HIV infections fell in the MSN group, including men who have sex with men. And this group therefore has a total share of about three to five percent of the population. Therefore, the study concludes that the risk within this group is much higher than in other groups. Lesbian women, on the other hand, are completely exempt from this and are even allowed to have more partners than straight people. Heterosexuals must not have had more than two in the past four months.
“The same applies to heterosexual people with multiple sexual partners”
However, the statistics say little about individual behavior. Can you understand that people feel discriminated against by this?
I totally understand that people feel offended. That’s why I think it’s important to keep having this debate. And the current easing also shows that the regulations have to be put to the test again and again. My problem is that this debate IS very political at the moment.
How else should it be managed?
I think it should be conducted more scientifically and medically again. At the moment we just can’t get around the statistics. This also applies to heterosexual people who say I had three partners and still want to donate blood. Then I have to say: That doesn’t work. It is important that we do not do this haphazardly. We really have a problem from the point at which people say, because of this regulation, I will not donate blood – out of solidarity.
“A donation once or twice a year would have helped a lot”
How so?
Because I deny solidarity with the other people, among whom there can also be queer people who need blood preparations. But they can’t do anything about it. In the end, whenever scientists decide how to proceed.
Back to those who are allowed to donate: How often do you have to donate to get a green branch?
Women are allowed to spend four times within twelve months, men six times. That’s a lot. For starters, it would be enough to say that I donate blood once or twice a year. Then a lot would have been achieved.
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