Taiwan Blood Service Foundation yesterday launched a blood drive targeting people with type A and type O blood to replenish reserve stocks amid a nationwide shortage in the months leading to the Lunar New Year.
The blood drive began yesterday and would run through Jan. 27 next year, foundation executive officer Wei Sheng-tang (魏昇堂) told a news conference in Taipei.
Taiwanese hospitals had less than seven days’ worth of blood supply, lower than the minimum safety margin, he said.
Photo: Liao Hsueh-ju, Taipei Times
Type O and type A blood supplies fell to urgent levels of 3.1 days and 4.4 days respectively, he said, adding that about 50 percent of Taiwanese have those blood types, making its shortage concerning.
Type O is a universal donor type, which means it can be used for people with type A, type B and type AB blood, but the reverse is not true, Wei said.
Taipei Veterans General Hospital hematologist Chen Wen-chun (陳玟均) said she had routinely donated blood before learning that she had anemia during a pregnancy check-up.
Chen said she had a dangerous complication during childbirth, but survived thanks to a massive 2 liter blood transfusion and added that the event convinced her to continue donating blood despite her condition.
Taiwan Osteogenesis Imperfecta secretary-general Cheng Chien-chih (程健智) said he is prone to fractures due to a congenital condition, which had resulted in dozens of surgeries and required many transfusions.
Cheng said his survival is proof that blood donations save lives and that he hoped Taiwanese would continue to donate blood.
Event organizers said that according to the law, people who are allowed to donate blood are those between ages 17 and 65, men who weigh more than 50kg and women who weigh more than 45kg.
Male donors must have a hemoglobin concentration of at least 13 grams per deciliter (gm/dl), and female donors must have a hemoglobin concentration of at least 12 gm/dl, event organizers said.
Blood donors should have a good night’s sleep and refrain from drinking alcohol for eight hours before giving blood, they said.
People who traveled to areas affected by dengue fever, malaria or blood-transmitted diseases could be barred from donating blood for up to one year, depending on the region, they added.
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail
HOLIDAY EXERCISE: National forest recreation areas from north to south offer travelers a wide choice of sights to connect with nature and enjoy its benefits Hiking is a good way to improve one’s health, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency said, as it released a list of national forest recreation areas that travelers can visit during the Lunar New Year holiday. Taking a green shower of phytoncides in the woods could boost one’s immunity system and metabolism, agency Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) cited a Japanese study as saying. For people visiting northern Taiwan, Lin recommended the Dongyanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Taoyuan’s Fusing District (復興). Once an important plantation in the north, Dongyanshan (東眼山) has a number of historic monuments, he said. The area is broadly covered by
RSS