O negative blood shortage overcome in Ticino hospitals

The shortage of O negative blood in Ticino hospitals has been overcome. The outcome follows rapid action by the Transfusion Service.

The measures adopted were of three kinds. Supplies available across the different facilities were centralised. Patients requiring transfusions were informed of the situation. Appeals were finally issued to donors.

The alternatives during the shortage

In some cases it was possible to use group O positive instead of O negative. The substitution applied to men and to women no longer of childbearing age who show no incompatible antibodies, as well as to patients in urgent conditions requiring large quantities of blood.

Stefano Fontana, medical director of the Transfusion Service for Italian-speaking Switzerland, explains the structural reason behind the difficulty. Donors of group O negative make up around 6% of the population, but O negative products are used at roughly twice that rate, because they are often needed in emergencies.

According to Fontana, a wider donor base would make it possible to respond more adequately to these urgent situations.

The imbalance stems from the nature of the group itself. O negative blood can be transfused to patients of other groups, which makes it the necessary choice when there is no time to determine the recipient's group.

The Transfusion Service has not said by how much supplies have recovered, nor how long the situation will remain stable. Demand for O negative blood depends on emergency procedures, which by their nature cannot be planned.

The shortage arose during a period of extreme heat. That is a phase when supplies tend to fall, because donor availability drops and donations become scarcer.