RIETI (ITALPRESS) – From March 26 to April 4, it will be possible to visit in Rieti, on the premises of Sabina Universitas, the traveling exhibition “The Journey of Plasma,” a visual journey to tell the story of the production process of life-saving plasma-derived drugs, starting with blood donation, presented today in Rieti at Palazzo Aluffi, headquarters of Sabina Universitas.
The initiative, which has already been hosted in Siena, Florence and Rome, is part of a broader educational and informational project aimed at communities in the regions by the Pla.Net (Plasma Network) Consortium, which unites Tuscany, Campania, Lazio, Marche, Molise and the General Inspectorate of Military Health, and with the nonconditional support of Takeda, a leading manufacturer of plasmaderivatives with two plants in Pisa and Rieti.
“Sabina Universitas is proud to host at its premises the traveling exhibition ‘The Journey of Plasmà,’ whose stated purpose is to encourage citizens, including the youngest, to donate,” commented Mariella Cari, President of the Sabina Universitas Consortium. “This university gives space to more than 1,200 students, and a good portion of them take courses in the health professions. This makes us a vocated audience to achieve the goals of the campaign, both in terms of training and cultural change on the issue of blood donation. So today we are ennobling our services and our purpose.”
The journey of “The Journey of Plasma” is developed through images of donor associations, transfusion facilities, collection centers, production sites and patient associations to raise awareness, especially among young people, of the importance of blood and plasma donation and the therapeutic and social value of life-saving therapies.
“We are today in the right place to do training on young people,” said Stefania Vaglio, director of the Lazio Regional Blood Center and head of the Complex SIMT Operating Unit at Sant’Andrea in Rome. “Plasma collection, let’s remember, is based on donation, and so first of all thanks to all the associations that work for this every day. It has recently been finally understood that plasma is also life-saving, because it is essential for the production of life-saving drugs. In 2020, the year we all remember, there was a 20 percent drop in blood collection in the United States, which led to a shortage of immunoglobulins and the interruption of distribution in Europe as well. We are clearly talking about a limiting example that requires us, however, to work toward self-sufficiency. In Lazio, younger people represent only 15% of the approximately 140,000 donors, an alarming figure. It is, therefore, fundamental to make our young people understand the importance of donations for patients and for the sustainability of the system.”
“In Lazio, fortunately, we are seeing a significant increase in plasma collection, thanks in part to a number of projects that CRS has implemented and that are supported by the region,” he added. “One example of this is the afternoon opening of donation centers, which allows most people to be able to donate at times that are convenient to their work commitments.
Plasma, a strategic global resource that cannot be chemically synthesized, represents a valuable source obtained exclusively through the generosity of donors. Donating plasma is a simple, painless and safe gesture that plays a crucial role in the production of life-saving drugs for the treatment of serious and rare diseases such as: hemophilia type A and B, hemorrhagic diseases, primary immunodeficiencies, hereditary angioedema and hereditary respiratory diseases. Open to all healthy individuals between the ages of 18 and 65, donation is, in addition, made after a medical examination and laboratory tests, thus contributing to free screening of volunteers.
“I remember vividly the morning of the Amatrice earthquake. The first ambulance arrived and the need for blood for transfusions was immediately evident. Fortunately, thanks to the generosity of donors, we were able to collect a significant amount of blood in a single day,” explained during the press conference Stefano Venarubea, Director U.O.C. Analytical Laboratory and Head of UOSD Transfusion Medicine, ASL Rieti – However, blood always remains an emergency. Initiatives like this are crucial to raise awareness of the importance of donations, as is the widespread work of the Associations to direct donors and ensure that blood is always available for those in need. Blood processing is equally crucial. Blood components, such as red blood cells, platelets and plasma, are essential for many life-saving therapies. Plasma-derived drugs, such as immunoglobulins and coagulation factors, make it possible to treat numerous hematologic and immunologic diseases. Without proper processing, it would not be possible to obtain these valuable components and ensure effective treatments for patients.”
To understand how donation is an extremely important act for the patient community, one only needs to know that 130 plasma donations are needed for the annual treatment of a person with primary immunodeficiency and that the annual treatments of a patient with hemophilia require 1,2003 donations.
“This exhibition, which Takeda proudly supported, tells through images the journey of plasma from vein to vein. As a company, we have a great responsibility: to transform plasma donated in Lazio, other regions of Italy and around the world into life-saving drugs to treat patients with rare and serious diseases. This initiative pays tribute to the approximately 1,000 Italian employees who work at the production sites in Rieti and Pisa, dedicating their time, skills and passion to this purpose every day,” concluded Francesca Micheli, CEO of Takeda Manufacturing Italia.
The year 2024 closed with a record plasma collection. More than 900 thousand kilos, in fact, were conferred to industrial fractionation in the last year, an achievement made possible by the generosity of Italian donors, which pushes our country more and more toward national self-sufficiency of plasma-derived drugs. Pending the final report, these numbers represent a 3 percent increase over the 880,000 kilos in 2023.
With this initiative in a large university campus, it is intended to draw attention to the culture of donation and raise awareness of precisely that segment of the population, between 18 and 30 years old, which could make a decisive contribution to increasing donations and further compensating for current shortages.
– photo spf/Italpress –
(ITALPRESS).
