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If you have blood, the American Red Cross needs your help. In a release yesterday, the ARC said it’s experiencing an emergency blood shortage, and says it’s seeing the lowest number of people giving blood in 20 years, down 40-percent. That’s led to a situation where the organization says that hospitals are currently getting blood products, including whole blood, red blood cells, plasma, and platelets, faster than donations are coming in. That means the blood supply is being rationed now. Dr. Eric Gehrie, a medical director at the American Red Cross, told ABC News that “we need an additional 8,000 donations every week in January in order to meet current hospital need.” According to the Red Cross, only around 3-percent of age-eligible people donate blood every year.
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