Shortage of plasma — Reasons and consequences

iPlasma
2 min readJun 4, 2021

Shortage of Plasma and its increasing demand leading to a vulnerable position beyond measure.

Plasma is separated from the blood and required in some medical conditions to extract and supply rich nutrients, hormones, and proteins to the infirm. But the increasing shortage of plasma and its vitalizing therapy which is reviving life savior for long-running treatments is concerning the medical industry as it’s impacting the patients in need. Also, with the shortage of plasma, the health care providers are prioritizing the treatment among the patients as per the need which sometimes makes them stand in the most defenseless situation.

Reasons for the shortage of Plasma?

The Immune Deficiency Foundation (IDF) encountered multiple challenging reasons with the shortage of plasma as the constant virus and flu infection threatening the world globally. ?In fact, the medical industry has also witnessed a heavy demand for plasma during medical urgency; hence the sudden surge in cases is causing a huge shortage of the plasmas in conventional blood banks and storages.

The?FDA authorities have stated that despite the increased supply of immune globulin (IG) products in recent times, and the urging for IG products has also increased which in the result is causing even more plasma shortage.

Lastly, the shortfalls of plasma donors are a huge concern, and this has become more frequent in the past few years due to the spurred demand for more plasma globally. Unless there’s a need in the family, people don’t consider or are not willing to come forward and volunteer the service and that’s the root cause of constraining situations linked to plasma shortage globally.

Consequences of Plasma Shortage

As the supply for plasma continues to be compact and lay on the contribution is hitting hard around the world this could badly impact the patient care system because plasma is cast-off to treat various concerning life-threatening conditions and the demand will continue to grow as per the needs.

With the due shortage of plasma, people across the country are being compelled to elongate with the time duration of treatments and lowering of doses, delay of treatments, prioritization based on medical needs, and use of alternative therapies which put them in vulnerable positions, facing consequences like increased health risks, including pain, organ damage, and debilitating infections.

Monitoring and managing a safe and adequate plasma supply are critical to the nation’s public health and an immediate surge for the medical community for the treatment of millions of patients across the world.

“To help the millions of patients suffering the most important, needful thing we all can do is to encourage plasma donation and appreciate the plasma donors for their progress contributions towards saving the world”.

Learn more about plasma. Visit www.iplasma.life

--

--

iPlasma

iPlasma is the social community for plasma donors.