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Platelet shortage puts kids at risk
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TWO children being treated for leukemia at Shanghai Children’s Medical Center had to be taken to intensive care last week because the facility didn’t have the platelets they needed.
The children were a 7-year-old girl and a 10-month-old boy. They needed the platelets after losing a lot of blood, but supplies ran out, the hospital said, adding that the shortage has left about a third of all patients in its hematology and oncology department at risk.
Leukemia patients have to undergo platelet transfusions after chemotherapy and stem cell transplants.
If a child’s platelet count falls below a certain level they become very prone to bleeding and the natural clotting function fails to work, said the center’s Dr Chen Jing.
“A single sneeze could cause a brain hemorrhage,” he said.
Meng Yan from the Shanghai Blood Center said that people need to be educated about the need to donate platelets.
“The public has an understanding of blood donation, but little knowledge of the need we have for platelets,” she said.
About 86,000 liters of blood are donated every year, but only 6,000 liters of platelets, she said.
“The amounts keep rising, but there is still not enough to meet clinical demand,” she said.
“We will run a promotion next month in universities to encourage more blood donors to also become platelet donors,” she said.
Donating platelets is more complicated than donating “whole blood” as the platelets have to be separated out, before the platelet-free blood is returned to the donor’s system, Meng said.
“The process takes about an hour, but people can donate platelets every two weeks, rather than having to wait six months between giving whole blood,” she said.
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