Sweden Urged to Double Blood Donations for NATO Support

NATO demands Swedish blood. Consequently, the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) assesses that the number of Swedish blood donors needs to double, as first reported by P4 Göteborg.

As a NATO member, Sweden is required to be able to send blood to other member countries.

To achieve this—and simultaneously meet the needs of healthcare and the heightened state of readiness—the Socialstyrelsen believes the number of blood donors must double.

– This could mean, for example, that we need to help Norway with blood. It's a new requirement that we haven't had before. Therefore, we must secure the supply in a better way, says Helena Ström, who works with blood donation at the Socialstyrelsen, to Göteborgs-Posten.

Decrease by Over 60,000

Last year, approximately 185,000 Swedes donated blood at least once. This is a decrease of over 60,000 people compared to 2010, according to the regions' joint website Geblod.

Several regions have also reported acute blood shortages this summer, partly because donors are on vacation. This could mean that planned surgeries risk being postponed.

However, Helena Ström tells Göteborgs-Posten that there has been a slight increase in the number of registered blood donors recently. But more is needed to reach the goal of having five percent of Swedes donate blood.

Call for More Young Men

The focus is primarily on attracting more young men to donate blood. According to Helena Ström, they often have better blood values than women, but it is harder to get them to participate.

– This is an attitude issue. We see that women are much easier to influence with our campaigns, where we often use emotional arguments, she says to Göteborgs-Posten.

On the Geblod website, there is statistics on which blood groups are currently most needed in all regions.