The Luxembourg Red Cross needs between 80 and 100 donors every day to maintain adequate blood reserves with around 475 millilitres of blood taken per donation. "At the moment, our stocks are okay", says Dr Andrée Heinricy of the Red Cross blood transfusion service. "But if people do not come to donate in the coming weeks, the situation could become critical."
The majority of donors come to Luxembourg City, where the Red Cross centre is open every day from Monday to Friday. Donations can also be made twice a week in Esch-Belval. Additionally, a mobile team travels across the country daily, visiting locations including Ettelbruck, Wiltz, Clervaux, Echternach, Grevenmacher, and Colpach. The full calendar of mobile collection points is available on the Red Cross website at croix-rouge.lu, under the blood donation section on the homepage, where appointments can also be booked directly online.
In principle, anyone who is in good health can give blood. Donors must be at least 18 years old, weigh a minimum of 50 kilograms and be no older than 65. Women can donate every four months, while men are permitted to donate every three months, owing to the fact that men generally have a higher blood volume.
Donors who have recently travelled to tropical regions are required to take a six-month break before donating. However, Dr Heinricy also noted that tropical diseases transmitted by mosquitoes have been appearing with increasing frequency in southern Europe in recent years, which means people returning from holidays in those areas must now also observe a one-month suspension. This has had a growing impact on available reserves.
A whole blood donation takes between five and ten minutes. First-time donors should allow around an hour in total, to include some rest time after the donation and to ensure all is well afterwards. Each donation yields 475 millilitres, a standardised amount that the body can tolerate well.
The average age of blood donors in Luxembourg is 42. "There are certainly many young people who come, but the majority are middle-aged."
