Australia’s Red Cross blood service wants to stop doctors throwing away tens of thousands of litres of valuable blood every year.
New research from the blood service known as “Lifeblood” reveals that 73,000 bags of discarded blood from people with an iron disorder could be used to save thousands of lives.
The Red Cross says the problem is that many people are unaware their blood can be donated.
People with haemochromatosis – a common genetic condition where the body stores too much iron – require periodic venesections (bloodletting) to manage their condition.
Lifeblood says this group has the potential to contribute greatly to the blood supply.
Blood taken from venesections at Australian Red Cross Lifeblood is donated to help save lives, and the service is urging individuals with haemochromatosis to go to a Lifeblood donor centre for venesections rather than a GP or pathology service.
Unlike in the United States, Australians are never paid for donating blood – it’s often in short supply.
Medicare data shows that between July 2022 and June 2023, there were 73,500 collections from therapeutic venesections outside of Lifeblood.
“If there’s anybody with haemochromatosis who hasn’t already checked to see if they can donate at Lifeblood, now’s a great time to call them on 13 14 95,” says Matthew Howie, Haemochromatosis Australia committee member and long-time donor at Lifeblood.
Four thousand people with haemochromatosis who had previously donated at Lifeblood were surveyed to understand why they choose to access treatment where they do.
The research titled “Beyond the Iron Gate” looked at “the attitudes and understanding that the therapeutic donors at Lifeblood have in relation to their treatment with us,” Dr Peter Bentley, Australian Red Cross Lifeblood researcher, told Cosmos.
“Almost 90% of donations from people with this condition are useable, however around 40% of people we surveyed didn’t know their blood could be used to save lives,” says Bentley.
“Once [participants] knew that their blood was used for making clinical products and not disposed of as it would be outside Lifeblood, that was a strong reason for them coming to us.”
Additionally, the research found that there was a lack of understanding in the General Practice community that blood from haemochromatosis patients can be used to make blood products for the Australian community.
“If doctors did understand that, they would be more likely to refer to us rather than organise [venesections] for their patients elsewhere, which obviously ends up causing the blood to be [wasted],” explains Bentley.
Lifeblood’s High Ferritin app can help doctors to determine the eligibility of patients to undertake therapeutic venesection at Lifeblood.
“It’s an online referral tool,” says Bentley. “Doctors can go into the app, put in the details of their patient’s problem and it will be sent to Lifeblood, who will organise a series of appointments for the patient.
“It’s very streamlined. The assessments are done while the doctor is making the referral, so they know in real time whether their patient meets our criteria for therapeutic venesection.”
Lifeblood has also moved to test iron levels in first time donors to pick up people with very high or low iron, including those who may have haemochromatosis.
“I had a call from someone in their 80s last year who’d only just found out he had haemochromatosis; and the reason he found out was because he’d been a regular donor at Lifeblood,” says Howie who answers Haemochromatosis Australia InfoLine calls.
“His iron never accumulated to a level that caused him problems … because he’d been a regular blood donor his whole life.”
Early diagnosis means that people in their young adulthood likely won’t suffer any harm from haemochromatosis, which is linked to cancer and organ damage, says Howie.
According to Lifeblood, people with haemochromatosis make up 2.5% of the Australian blood donor panel – 15,000 donors make 37,000 donations every year, which save up to 111,000 lives.
Lifeblood’s research will be published in the Australian Journal of General Practice in the near future.
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