The 2nd edition of the rare blood group awareness week, organized by the French Blood Establishment (EFS), will take place from November 14 to 20, 2022. The EFS hopes to mobilize a large number of donors and to discover new rare blood donors in order to increase its stocks.
But what is a rare blood type?
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What is the aim of this week?
In addition to raising awareness about blood donation, we need to raise awareness about people who may have blood that is in high demand for transfusion.
Anyone can be a carrier of a rare blood type, and in metropolitan France, it is the people from the African continent, the West Indies and the Indian Ocean, or those with African ancestry, who are more likely to be carriers of a rare blood type.
They have the power to treat patients who have the same rare blood characteristics, whether they are patients suffering from cancer, victims of haemorrhage – surgery, childbirth…- or suffering from chronic diseases such as sickle cell anemia.
It is therefore necessary to find blood donors who are compatible with the patients in order to offer them the most adequate transfusion.
During the first edition of the rare blood awareness week, in 2021, the EFS reached several million people, which allowed it to increase the number of collections from people with rare blood.
An appeal is therefore launched during this awareness week to encourage as many people as possible to contact the EFS, make an appointment at a collection site, and experience a priceless satisfaction: the feeling of doing a good deed.
