Blood and Plasma Donation

15,000 blood donations per day are needed for operations, to treat severe illnesses, such as cancer, and to help accident victims. Two million people in Germany already donate blood regularly, but this commitment will not be enough in future.

As a result of the demographic trend, many current donors, some of whom have been helping other people by donating blood for decades, will no longer be able to donate in the next few years for reasons of age (age limit: 68 years). Even today, the average age of the donors at many institutions is over 50.

In view of these developments, the Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA) is once again intensifying its measures in this field. On 25.08.2009, BZgA launched its new, nationwide blood donor campaign "Simply save life. Give blood" with a kick-off event at Aachen University Hospital. Anyone interested can find a wealth of useful information on the subject of blood donation at www.einfachlebenretten.de.

The central aim of the measures is to recruit young adults as new donors and encourage coming donor generations to give blood. The activities are intended to support the donation institutions in Germany in fulfilling their commission to supply the population with blood. The basis for this work is the statutory mandate, formulated in Section 3 Para. 4 of the German Transfusion Act, to provide information and motivation concerning blood and plasma donation.