Blood donations needed, O-type blood running low: donation center

Taipei, Aug. 20 (CNA) Recent storms have disrupted blood donations and caused a blood shortage in central and southern Taiwan, with O-type blood the biggest need nationwide, said Lin Min-chang (林敏昌), director of the Taipei Blood Center, on Wednesday.

Speaking at a routine Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) briefing on Wednesday, Lin said thousands of bags of blood have been reallocated from Taipei and Hsinchu to areas further south to ease the shortage, but he said there was still a need for donations.

The current national blood stockpile has reserves adequate for 8.1 days, but stocks of O-type blood are down to about 6.8 days of supply, according to the latest statistics from the Taiwan Blood Services Foundation.

The safety reserve for different types of blood is typically around seven to 10 days, with four to seven days considered low and less than four days as urgent.

Lin said blood donation rates are easily affected by the weather, and that blood banks in northern Taiwan were usually the ones that run low on blood, while those in southern Taiwan normally do not because of the relatively mild climate.

Taiwan uses approximately 6,600 bags of blood daily, and the donation rate within Taiwan in 2024 was 7.8 percent, exceeding the 5 percent specified by the World Health Organization, according to Lin.

On July 2, the TFDA released its new Health Standards for Blood Donors, which relaxed age and weight thresholds, and Lin said that while there has been an increase in the number of people donating blood, the policy's long-term effectiveness remains unclear.

Meanwhile, when asked about domestically produced blood products, Lin said that apart from supplying whole blood and platelets, the Taiwan Blood Services Foundation continues to push the production of essential drugs listed under the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act, including immunoglobulin (IVIG), albumin, and coagulation factors VIII and IX.

While domestic production of albumin is not self-sufficient yet due to the high demand for it, there are no issues with the supply of the other three, Lin said.

The Taiwan Blood Services Foundation said it is hoping to increase the percentage of medicines produced from domestically donated blood from the current 50 percent to as high as 80 percent to ensure sufficient domestic supply in times of international crises.