by Dr. James Louie

Due to changing blood donor criteria, donor deferral rates have been increasing since 1999, with trends predicting additional deferral increases. This predicament has created a critical demand for new people to step forward to donate to ensure there is an adequate supply of blood for hospital patients on Long Island who require life-saving transfusions, reports long Island Blood Services’ (LBS) officials.

Donor eligibility and criteria are established by the Food & Drug Administration to protect the safety of the American blood supply, But as more and more deferrals are put into place, some of which are based on purely theoretical risk of disease transmission, the result is fewer current donors remain eligible to donate.

We estimate we have lost approximately five percent of our donors since November 2002 due to criteria related to travel or residence in Europe for fear of transmitting mad cow disease despite any medical or scientific evidence this is possible. Other potential donors are turned away now if they were possibly exposed to West Nile Virus, the SARS virus, or if they have less than one-year-old tattoos, traveled to malarial regions of the world or served time in the military in Iraq. The bottom line is that with each new deferral, the nation’s blood supply is put at risk and no more so than in the populous Long Island community where some of the nation’s finest medical care facilities are located.

Our community demands nearly 800 life-saving donations of blood daily to meet the transfusion needs of patients in close to 50 Long Island hospitals. Yet currently less than two percent of eligible people in our community donate blood versus the nationwide average of five percent of eligible residents in a community donating. We simply need more people locally rolling up their sleeves if we hope to avoid a devastating shortage of blood this month as we approach the holidays.

A less than adequate blood supply could translate into reduced shipments of blood to area hospitals, canceled elective surgeries, emergency room closures or worse.  LIBS is urging eligible people to donate to guarantee no one goes without a life-saving transfusion this November. Potential donors are asked to call Long Island Blood Services at 1-89000-933-BLOOD ore visit www. nybloodcenter.org to schedule an appointment at one of many convenient donation locations in Lake Success, Rockville Centre, Mineola, Melville, Bohemia and Port Jefferson.

The writer is the executive director, Long Island Blood Services.