Blood donations, in 2024 a record collection. Still, plasma still is not enough

World donor day 2025 arrives with growing numbers that confirm Italian self -sufficiency for blood supplies and blood components. According to Avis data, the total donations of 2024 exceed three million (+1.1 % on 2023) thanks to 1.67 million active volunteers.

About 640 thousand patients received a total of 2.3 million transfusions of red blood cells (on average 4.5 per minute, 1,755 per day). And contrary to what we had seen some time ago, the generational change returns to consolidate: between 18 and 25 years of age there are finally more than 75 thousand new donors (+5 %), while the new donors touch the 127 thousand (+1.1 %).

“We approach an important milestone for all of us, that is, that of the one hundred years of Foundation of Avis,” he explains Oscar Bianchinational president of the Association, “a goal that has been made possible thanks to millions of citizens who have offered their contribution from 1927 to today volunteer, anonymous, free, periodic and associated. Many challenges that still await us, such as the achievement of the self -sufficiency of plasmaervic medicines and the involvement of an increasing number of young peoplethe only ones who can guarantee the generational change of a donor population with an increasingly higher average age “.

The plasma front It is actually still problematic. It is the liquid part of the blood necessary for the production of irreplaceable drugs In the treatment of numerous pathologies and clinical needs such as hemophilia, liver diseases, burns, transplants, primitive and acquired immunodeficiencies, in addition to the prevention of hepatitis B, tetanus and much more.
If 2024 marked the record of 906,938 kg (+3%), a value that is equivalent to just over 15 kg per thousand inhabitants, this threshold It remains about 2.6 kg under the safety goal fixed at 18 kg. The deficiency therefore requires to resort to the import of plasmaerivati, exposing the health service to price fluctuations and global availability. However, the positive trend seems confirmed also by the preliminary data of 2025.

The donation just a click away

In Europe The average donation in high -income countries is of 31.5 Units per thousand inhabitantsbut the gap remains wide: it starts from 6 to reach 67.6 with the leaders Denmark. The consumption of red blood cells differs equally: Germany exceeds 50-55 units per thousand inhabitants, Italy stands around 41.7, while Spain remains just above 36. In July 2024 the European Union adopted the SOHO Regulationwhich uniform quality standards, traceability and supervision for blood, tissues and cells, establishing a coordination board between Member States.

Among the various initiatives taking place for this day, Red – reality founded by the two under 30 Chiara Schettino and Filippo Toni – proposes one innovative solution To support and accelerate the digital transition of the blood system in Italy. The company has in fact recently launched the concrete tool that allows citizens of Book a donation in a few clicksmanage your donor’s path consciously, protect privacy, receive personalized information, actively support gift associations such as Avis, simplifying coordination for transfusion centers. All through a comfortable app available on webiOS and Android. The app represents a decisive step towards the digital transition of the National Health Service, offering a response to some of its main critical issues and pushing towards young people.

For Italy the priorities of the next few years are, moreover, clear: to push the plasmaferesis to fill the gap, retain the donors over-45, extend the Patient Blood Management In hospitals and exploit the centenary of Avis in 2027 as a cultural catalyst of a new solidarity pact. At the Target of young people the association addresses its own Main awareness -raising activitiesstrengthening the presence on social networks such as Instagram, which recorded an extraordinary growth of 397.8% of the coverage of posts compared to the previous year and over 1.2 million unique users achieved. On the same line, Tiktok statistics speak of 1,719,736 users reached for a total of 2,399,549 views of the published content.