Penza, 12 October 2017. PenzaNews. A tendency towards decrease in the number of blood donors has been registered in the Penza region. This was reported by the assistant to the head physician of the regional hemotransfusion station Stepan Kozak on Thursday, October 12.

Photo: Health.pnzreg.ru

"In recent months we have been observing decrease in the number of donors who come to our centre, even though over the last few years their number was stable and we had no difficulty in providing medical facilities with blood components," he noted.

Stepan Kozak explained that the number of donors depended on a season.

"Annual reduction occurs during the summer months in connection with holidays. In the autumn-winter period, the number of donors normally increases, but this year we can see a sharp decline in the flow of donors both in stationary blood donation centres and in mobile stations," the assistant to the head of the facility specified.

According to him, the shortage of blood in the region was not perceptible at that moment but the necessity to store it up remained all the time.

"We invite everyone to the blood centre but the greatest need is usually for the second positive blood group. If there is an excessive surplus of a certain blood group, we ask donors to abstain from blood donation over some period of time because the expiration date and the period of storage are limited," Stepan Kozak added.

The doctor said that "Blood service" intended to intensify purposeful promotion of voluntary donorship among the population.

"We focused on donor sessions in non-profit organizations but this year we have observed increasing unwillingness to carry out such activities. It is possible that donors do not want to take part in the campaigns because employers do not provide them with days off prescribed by the donor certificate," the press service of the regional Ministry of Health quotes Stepan Kozak.

According to the department, the number of primary blood donors over nine months of the year 2016 amounted to over 3,638 people, while in 2017 over the same period of time the number of donors decreased to 3,401 people.