The Ministry of Health today appealed for people to come to donate blood, especially in the provinces of Cadiz, Seville and Malaga, where the stored blood units have fallen "significantly" , the department that Maria Jesus Montero leads said today.



In particular, Health urged the public to come to donate blood to mobile blood extraction teams located in the province of Malaga, due to reserves declining caused with assistance offered after the accident occurred recently with several victims in the town of Benalmadena.



The health administration made this appeal to get donations to restore reserves urgently, especially in view of the proximity of the next holidays starting May 1.



Thus, recalled that during these holidays mass displacement of citizens are expected, at which time unfortunately tend to occur traffic accidents, whose assistance requires high doses of blood.



The blood obtained in the eight blood extraction units of the Andalusian public network are distributed to all public and private hospitals of Andalucia. In fact, the entire network operates as a single centre, as the existing coordination and levels of proficiency achieved allow blood where the needs are so required.



The Andalusian community is self-sufficient in the supply of blood and only in moments declines occur in reserves that make it necessary to appeal to citizenship.



Balance 2007.



In 2007, the Andalusians conducted a total of 265,141 blood donations in the eight blood extraction units with which the Andalusian public network, which are responsible for the extractions and the processing and fractionation of donated blood. This figure shows that the Andalusians have a high degree of solidarity with the donation of blood.



Specifically, of 265,141 donations registered, 254,283 were from whole blood, 8,086 were plasma and 2,772 platelets. In absolute numbers, the number of donations by province was as follows: Almeria (16,524), Cadiz (33,531), Cordoba (31,335), Grenada (43,081), Huelva (15,951), Jaen (21,557), Malaga (46,268) and Seville (56,874).