Urgent!

Salzburg is looking for new blood plasma donors

(Bild: dpa/Ulrich Perrey)

Since the beginning of the corona pandemic, monthly blood plasma donations in the province of Salzburg have fallen by 22 percent. Elisabeth Maier, Manager of the BioLife Plasma Center Salzburg, warns that this decline threatens the security of supply of vital medicines obtained from blood plasma.

Salzburg is not alone in this development; a similar decline in donations has been recorded throughout Austria. Both the number of new donors and the number of donations per person have fallen, emphasized Maier. The average donor used to come to the plasma center 15 times a year, but now it is only twelve times a year. Theoretically, every healthy person could donate blood plasma 50 times a year. Together with Daniela Gutschi (ÖVP), State Councillor for Health, and Karl Forster, President of the Medical Association, Maier therefore appealed to the population to donate more blood plasma at a press conference on Wednesday. This is also about solidarity in a society, said Gutschi.

Only enough donations will ensure supply 
Blood plasma cannot be produced artificially. That is why it is so important to have enough donations to ensure medical care, explained Maier. The blood plasma collected in Austria is also processed in Austria, so it is also about autonomy of supply, know-how and added value. Medicines made from blood plasma are life-saving, for example in the treatment of rare diseases, serious injuries or immune disorders.

In a plasma donation, only the protein-rich part of the blood is collected; the red blood cells are immediately returned to the donor via a tube system. Donors must be healthy, between 18 and 65 years old and weigh at least 50 kilograms. Before donating for the first time, interested parties undergo a blood test and parameters such as blood pressure, pulse and body weight are also checked. Donors receive an expense allowance of 39 euros as well as a regular health check. Blood and plasma donations are not mutually exclusive. However, there should be a time gap between the two donations. "We need both," said Gutschi and Forster in unison.