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| More than 4.5 million patients need blood transfusions each year in the U.S. and Canada.
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| 43,000 pints: amount of donated blood used each day in the U.S. and Canada.
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| Someone needs blood every two seconds. Females receive 53 percent of blood transfusions; males receive 47 percent.
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| Only 38 percent of the U.S. population is eligible to donate blood - less than 10 percent do annually. **
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| About 1 in 7 people entering a hospital need blood.
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| One pint of blood can save up to three lives.
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| In Virginia healthy adults who are at least 16 and weigh at least 110 pounds may donate about a pint of blood - the most common form of donation - every 56 days, or every two months. Sixteen year old donors must have written parental consent to donate.
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| 94 percent of blood donors are registered donors.
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| There are four main red blood cell types: A, B, AB and O. Each can be positive or negative for the Rh factor. AB is the universal recipient; O negative is the universal donor of red blood cells.
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| Dr. Karl Landsteiner first identified the major human blood groups - A, B, AB and O - in 1901.
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| One unit of blood can be separated into several components: red blood cells, plasma, platelets and cryoprecipitate.
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| Red blood cells carry oxygen to the body's organs and tissues.
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| Red blood cells live about 120 days in the circulatory system.
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| Platelets promote blood clotting and give those with leukemia and other cancers a chance to live.
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| Plasma is a pale yellow mixture of water, proteins and salts.
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| Plasma, which is 90 percent water, makes up 55 percent of blood volume.
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| Healthy bone marrow makes a constant supply of red cells, plasma and platelets.
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| Blood or plasma that comes from people who have been paid for it cannot be used for transfusion.
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| Granulocytes, a type of white blood cell, roll along blood vessel walls in search of bacteria to engulf and destroy.
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| White blood cells are the body's primary defense against infection.
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| Apheresis is a special kind of blood donation that allows a donor to give specific blood components, such as platelets.
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| Forty-two days: how long most donated red blood cells can be stored.
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| Five days: how long most donated platelets can be stored.
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| One year: how long frozen plasma can be stored.
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| Much of today's medical care depends on a steady supply of blood from healthy donors.
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| 2.7 pints: the average whole blood and red blood cell transfusion.*
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| Children being treated for cancer, premature infants and children having heart surgery need blood and platelets from donors of all types, especially type O.
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| Anemic patients need blood transfusions to increase their red blood cells.
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| Cancer, transplant and trauma patients, and patients undergoing open-heart surgery may require platelet transfusions to survive.
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| Sickle cell disease is an inherited disease that affects more than 80,000 people in the United States, 98 percent of whom are of African descent.
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| Many patients with severe sickle cell disease receive blood transfusions every month.
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| A patient could be forced to pass up a lifesaving organ, if compatible blood is not available to support the transplant.
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| Thirteen tests (11 for infectious diseases) are performed on each unit of donated blood.
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| 17 percent of non-donors cite "never thought about it" as the main reason for not giving, while 15 percent say they're too busy.
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| The #1 reason blood donors say they give is because they "want to help others."
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| Shortages of all blood types happen during the summer and winter holidays.
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| Blood centers often run short of types O and B red blood cells.
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| The rarest blood type is the one not on the shelf when it's needed by a patient.
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| There is no substitute for human blood.
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| If all blood donors gave three times a year, blood shortages would be a rare event (the current average is about two donations a year.).
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| If only one more percent of all Americans would give blood, blood shortages would disappear for the forseeable future.
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| 46.5 gallons: amount of blood you could donate if you begin at age 16 and donate every 56 days until you reach 78 years old.
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| Four easy steps to donate blood: medical history, quick physical, donation and snack.
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| The actual blood donation usually takes about 10 minutes. The entire process - from the time you sign in to the time you leave - takes about an hour.
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| After donating blood, you replace the fluid in hours and the red blood cells within four weeks. It takes eight weeks to restore the iron lost after donating.
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| You cannot get AIDS or any other infectious disease by donating blood.
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| 10 pints: amount of blood in the body of an average adult.
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| One unit of whole blood is roughly the equivalent of one pint.
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| Blood makes up about 7 percent of your body's weight.
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| A newborn baby has about one cup of blood in his body.
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| Giving blood will not decrease your strength.
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| Any company, community organization, places of worship or individual may contact their local community blood center to host a blood drive.
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| Blood drives hosted by companies, schools, places of worship and civic associations supply roughly half of all blood donations across the U.S.
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| People who donate blood are volunteers and are not paid for their donations.
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| 500,000: the number of Americans who donated blood in the days following the September 11 attacks.
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| Blood donation. It's about an hour of your time. It's About Life.
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| * Source: The 2005 Nationwide Blood Collection and Utilization Survey Report, Department of Health and Human Services.
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| ** W. Riley, et al. The United States' potential blood donor pool: estimating the prevalence of donor-exclusion factors on the pool of potential donors. Transfusion 2007.
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| Copyright 2008, America's Blood Centers
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