Flu pandemic could disrupt blood supply

LANGEN, Germany, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- A severe influenza pandemic could quickly lead to a deficit of up to 96,000 red blood cell transfusion units in Germany alone, medical researchers said.

"The pandemic model showed that after five to six weeks of a severe pandemic, there would be 220,000 fewer units than the normal supply, a reduction of 40 percent to 50 percent," lead researcher Dr. Christel Kamp, of the Paul-Ehrlich Institute in Germany said in a statement.

"If we assume that 70 percent of required transfusion units are urgent and cannot wait, this could lead to approximately 100,000 units being denied to people who need them."

Red blood cells need to be applied in life-threatening situations, but can neither be synthetically produced nor be kept in stock for more than six weeks. This makes them an especially precious resource in situations of crisis such as an influenza pandemic because availability is dependent on the health of donors, Kamp said.

"Although current interventions to limit the spread of influenza might reduce the scale of a pandemic to that experienced during seasonal influenza epidemics, continued alertness should be mandatory and should be implemented within the regulatory framework," Kamp said. "It will be equally important to better understand the demand for red blood cells to define prioritization schemes."

The study is published in the journal Transfusion.