Health - Resources and discussion for everything health-related

2392 readers

504 users here now

Health: physical and mental, individual and public.

Discussions, issues, resources, news, everything.

See the pinned post for a long list of other communities dedicated to health or specific diagnoses. The list is continuously updated.

Nothing here shall be taken as medical or any other kind of professional advice.

Commercial advertising is considered spam and not allowed. If you're not sure, contact mods to ask beforehand.

Linked videos without original description context by OP to initiate healthy, constructive discussions will be removed.

Regular rules of lemmy.world apply. Be civil.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

Awa

WhoRoger

RoyalEngineering

133

Blood donations have fallen to catastrophic levels. Experts say young people need to step up. (www.nbcnews.com)

submitted 11 months ago by MicroWave to c/health

95 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Changes to the requirements for donating blood coupled with the pandemic have led to a drop-off in the number of teens and young adults donating blood.

It was a white T-shirt bearing the likeness of Snoopy wearing shades and leaning effortlessly against the iconic American Red Cross logo that prompted a surge in blood donations in the spring of 2023.

“Be cool. Give blood,” the shirt urged. The message — on young people, anyway — was effective. More than 70,000 people under age 35 responded to the call, rolling up their sleeves and giving blood in exchange for the coveted tees.

The need for blood is urgent. Over the holidays, the Red Cross had 7,000 fewer units of blood available than were needed by hospitals, said Dr. Eric Gehrie, the executive medical director of the American Red Cross. The organization speculated it would need about 8,000 additional donations every week in January to ensure that hospitals are fully supplied, he added.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I donate blood regulary and I actually enjoy the process. Where I donate they are all very kind and afterwards I can sit in a room with endless food and drinks. I even get a little bit of money for my troubles. Would recommend just giving it a try. If it's not for you nobody blames you if you never do it again.

Edit: An extra is that they check your blood for a lot of stuff and if they find something you know very early and can treat it easily. Free blood checkup.

[–] cujo 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Where is this that you get paid for blood donation? That sounds like a reasonable thing to do

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Im donating at a hospital in germany. A plus is that they only use my blood to actually help people in that hospital and don't sell any of it to big pharma.