By Molly Hunter
The Zika virus and a summertime drop in blood donations has blood centers at the national and local level clambering for end-of-summer donors.
Kirby Winn, the director of public relations at the Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center, said his organization has had a new deferral for Zika virus this year.
“This all began in February regarding travel to regions where Zika is present … but lately we’ve seen, for the first time, the need to add parts of Florida to that deferral,” he said.
The University of Iowa DeGowin Blood Center is giving out promotional items in efforts to increase blood donations, said Jessica Hinrichs, blood-drive coordinator at the center.
The items include tumblers and T-shirts that read “I Bleed Black and Gold.” The center has also increased the number of blood drives it will host.
“Now that school has started, we do four to five drives a week,” she said, noting that it’s a contrast with the two to three drives DeGowin holds during the summer, which might attract only 20 donors.
Winn said Florida’s Miami-Dade and Broward Counties have been added to the deferral list for blood donors.
The Zika deferral is contributing to an already low blood supply.
Rick Roseneck, Red Cross external communications manager, said people in high school and college account for around 25 percent of the Red Cross’s blood donors.
The Red Cross tries to capitalize on blood donations during the school year, when high-schoolers and college students are easy to reach. However, when schools are on summer break, donations drop off.
Right now, Roseneck said, the Red Cross is short 40,000 units of blood. In an attempt to increase the number of donations, it put out an appeal for more blood donors in early July.
Roseneck said people responded to the plea, but the need for blood still outdistances the available supply.
Other blood centers have been doing their part to try to increase donations.
For instance, the Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center has hosted a summer-long drawing for a new Ford Fiesta.
“Everyone who registers to donate … is automatically included in that drawing,” Winn said. “We’re giving everyone who comes in $5 in a gift card.”
Winn said these promotions are not typical and usually occur during periods when it’s harder to recruit donors.
Above all such promotional events, however, Roseneck stressed the importance of donating regularly.
“We try to educate people so they can regularly donate,” he said. “Giving blood is just one way to make things better.”
