Easier Ways to Donate Plasma

Blood plasma collected from human “source” plasma donations is used to make various life saving therapeutics for people with Immune Deficiencies and other diseases. There is an ongoing critical shortage of available plasma that is needed for immune replacement therapy. The companies that make this medication are located across the United States in clusters. There are no donation centers for source plasma in Massachusetts, even though Boston has some of the top medical centers and schools in the world. The closest donation centers are in Rhode Island and in Maine and even though people are willing to travel to donate source plasma they are being turned away because they don’t live within a certain radius of the collection center. The reason for this is that the collection centers would like for people to be donors on multiple occasions they are worried that donors will not return if they live far away. Given that we are in a critical shortage of blood plasma donations globally, I would like for plasma companies to ease restrictions and to set up centers at the Red Cross so that more people could donate. I would also like to petition for source plasma collection centers to have travel plasma donation clinics, like what is seen on the Red Cross traveling blood donations. The plasma donations collected at hospitals and through the Red Cross are different from “source plasma donations” because hospital donations are used for all patients in emergency situations and can only be collected from donors with AB blood, which only accounts for 4% of the population. Source plasma is used for life saving, life long immune therapies. Source plasma companies: https://www.donatingplasma.org/donation/find-a-donor-center