News and articles

A regulation concerning sexual behaviour issued by the Finnish Medicines Agency Fimea will be introduced in blood donation on 4.12.2023. The regulation changes eligibility criteria to lift the separate ban on blood donation for men who have sex with men.

Soon, you will be able to give blood in new surroundings when the Blood Donation Bus rolls into town. The bus, designed specifically for blood donation, will tour the Helsinki metropolitan area, offering a new way to reach blood donors in addition to Blood Service centres and blood donation events.

A new pilot project is using samples from donors to investigate susceptibility to haemochromatosis, a disease in which iron accumulates in the body.

The FinnGen research consortium has successfully collected and generated genomic data from 500,000 individuals. Now, the project will continue its search for genetic clues to disease progression and explore the biological mechanism of the genetic signals uncovered in the first stages of the project. In the FinnGen project there's also genome data produced from blood donors in the Blood Service Biobank.

Will Jokerit face off against series leader TUTO Hockey? The fifth season of the Lifesavers' League, organised by Mestis Hockey and the Finnish Blood Service, will begin on 21.9.2023. This year, a new challenger will enter the blood donation competition as Jokerit will be joining for the first time.

This year, the Blood Service Research Fund has decided to award EUR 500,000 in grants to a total of 11 research projects.

The Blood Service’s new workplace certification is a new way in which workplaces can contribute to societal goals. The certificate is awarded to businesses that allow their employees to donate blood during working hours.

The Blood Service has begun a project to utilise unused cord blood products in medical research. In August, approximately one thousand mothers and their children who have donated cord blood will receive a letter from the Blood Service asking them for permission to transfer the donated cord blood to the Blood Service’s biobank.

The Finnish Red Cross Blood Service (FRCBS) constantly travels to different towns and cities collecting blood from donors who want to help. This summer is no different, with 4–5 events organised each weekday all over Finland. Mobile operations play an important role in maintaining the blood supply, as almost half of all blood needed in Finland is collected at mobile blood donation events.

The summer holidays see a decline in the number of visitors to blood donation points, but volunteer donors’ help is vital for patients, no matter what time of year it is. During the course of a single summer weekend, the Blood Service supplies hospitals with approximately 500–600 red cell products and 150–200 platelet products.

The Blood Service is responsible for ensuring the safety of blood products and does this by having in place certain safeguards against transfusion-transmitted infections that are often asymptomatic. One example is the 28-day deferral period for donors who visit Central or Southern Europe during the West Nile virus season (between 1 July and 30 November).

We conducted a customer satisfaction survey in the spring to find out how donors feel about the Blood Service and what improvements they would like to see going forward.