Ability to Treat Patients Who Require Blood in Peril, Donations at 20-Year Low

By Rosalind Fournier | UAB News The number of blood donors is at an all-time low going back 20 years, according the American Red Cross. This has led to a critical shortage of blood supplies across the country — to the point that the organization declared an emergency blood shortage in January 2024. Investigators at UAB recently published research in JAMA which shows that the nation’s ability to treat patients who require blood on any given day is in peril. Our nation’s ability to treat the patients who require blood on any given day — from victims of mass-casualty events to those undergoing treatment for cancer — is in serious peril, according to a new paper, “The Bloody Transfusion Problem,” published in the Journal of the American Medicine Association (JAMA). John B. Holcomb, M.D., professor in the University of Alabama at Birmingham Division of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery. (UAB) John B. Holcomb, M.D., professor in the University of Alabama at Birmingham Division of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery and lead author, paints a picture that extends beyond technical research into the economics, politics, and logistics of solving the country’s problems surrounding blood supply and usage. These include the alarmingly...