Canadian Blood Services calls for more blood from visible minorities

As Canada’s aging population drives up blood demand, Canadian Blood Services is issuing a call for more blood from visible minorities, and will use a Batman-style “Blood Signal” to motivate the population at large when reserves run low.

Rally Together to Save Lives, a campaign launched Monday by Canadian Blood Services, is looking to recruit more Canadians from “ethnic communities” to help meet Canada’s “future blood requirements.”

“We need our donors across Canada to reflect this country’s cultural mosaic. That means we need more people from ethnic communities to become regular blood donors to help those in their community,” read a Monday press release.

With millions of immigrants apiece, Toronto and Vancouver are receiving particular focus from the Canadian Blood Services campaign, especially “Chinese, South Asian, and Filipino” communities.

Immigrant communities remain underpresented among blood donors, the organization said. Visible minorities represent 20% of the Canadian population, yet they constitute just 7% of blood donors. “There is a big gap that we want to close,” said Tony Steed, director of marketing and recruitment for Canadian Blood Services.

Part of the problem is awareness. Language barriers inevitably play a factor, since Canadian Blood Services is legally bound to only provide services in French and English. For that reason, the organization is “reaching out primarily to second- or third-generation Canadians,” Mr. Steed said.

Immigrants from some countries are disallowed from giving blood. Africans are barred from donating due to HIV concerns, for instance. So are people who spent more than three months in the United Kingdom between 1980 and 1996, at the height of the prevalence of mad cow disease.

As the fastest-growing sector of the Canadian population, immigrant communities provide the richest source for regular, long-term blood donors. By 2015, Canadian Blood Services is looking to recruit 500,000 new members. In that same period, immigrant communities are expected to grow by more than a million people. “We really do need to tap into that growth to grow our donor base,” Mr. Steed said.

A greater diversity of blood donors is also important since, in rare cases, blood transfusions need to be race-specific. “An example is sickle cell disease, where we do have to look specifically for a black donor to best meet the needs to a black patient,” Mr. Steed said.

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