The Taiwan Blood Services Foundation is to start before the end of the year a trial run of blood donations from people aged 65 to 70 with an eye to petitioning the government to ease regulations on donor eligibility.
Given an aging population, Taiwan is faced with the dilemma of an ever-increasing demand for blood for transfusions, while its number of eligible young donors declines, the foundation said.
Raising the age limit for donors is an option to boost the nation’s blood supply, foundation chairman Hou Sheng-mao (侯勝茂) said in an article published in the Taiwan Medical Journal.
Photo: CNA
The US, Canada and other nations have been pushing the same measure, as elderly people have the lowest risk for blood-transmitted diseases, he wrote.
As of last year, Taiwan had a blood donation rate of 7.55 percent, which is higher than the average 4 to 5 percent in other countries, the foundation said.
Annual donations reach about 2.5 million bags of 250ml each, with the figure rising steadily, it said.
However, demand is also surging: From 2014 to last year, it rose 4 percent from 2.22 million bags of blood to 2.31 million bags, foundation statistics showed.
Donors were mainly older people, with those aged 41 to 65 contributing 799,000 bags, while donations by younger people, aged 17 to 30, decreased from 629,000 bags to 535,000 bags, the data showed.
Lagging supply leads to a rapid depletion of stored plasma during natural disasters, foundation consultant Lin Tung-tsan (林東燦) said.
Fit and healthy older people have been calling on the government to ease donor restrictions, Lin said.
According to the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Standards for the Health of Blood Donors (捐血者健康標準), people over 65 years old who wish to donate blood must obtain a doctor’s permission and present proof of health.
The trial’s aim is to raise the age cap for donors to 70, with an accompanying clause that they must have donated blood within the past two years without experiencing any discomfort, the foundation said.
It marks the first time in 18 years that the country is discussing whether to relax regulations on donor age, Lin said.
The trial run would impose a maximum donation of 250ml per session, but would allow males to donate up to four times a year — up from three — while platelet donation would remain the same at one unit per session, not fewer than four weeks between sessions and no more than 12 times a year, Lin said.
After a trial run of one to two years, the foundation hopes to present the results and petition the FDA to raise the age limit for donors, it said.
FDA drug division official Huang Mei-chen (黃玫甄) said that the agency would not preclude such discussions.
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) is to begin his one-year alternative military service tomorrow amid ongoing legal issues, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. Wang, who last month was released on bail of NT$150,000 (US$4,561) as he faces charges of allegedly attempting to evade military service and forging documents, has been ordered to report to Taipei Railway Station at 9am tomorrow, the Alternative Military Service Training and Management Center said. The 33-year-old would join about 1,300 other conscripts in the 263rd cohort of general alternative service for training at the Chenggong Ling camp in Taichung, a center official told reporters. Wang would first
MINOR DISRUPTION: The outage affected check-in and security screening, while passport control was done manually and runway operations continued unaffected The main departure hall and other parts of Terminal 2 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport lost power on Tuesday, causing confusion among passengers before electricity was fully restored more than an hour later. The outage, the cause of which is still being investigated, began at about midday and affected parts of Terminal 2, including the check-in gates, the security screening area and some duty-free shops. Parts of the terminal immediately activated backup power sources, while others remained dark until power was restored in some of the affected areas starting at 12:23pm. Power was fully restored at 1:13pm. Taoyuan International Airport Corp said in a
RSS