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Red Cross appeals for blood donations amidst Zika scares
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The American Red Cross says the nation's blood supply is running critically low and is asking for donors to step up within the next week. But there's one group of people who should stay away anyone who might have been exposed to Zika. - photo by Jennifer Graham
The American Red Cross has issued an emergency appeal for blood donations, saying the nation's supply is critically low because of the July Fourth holiday and summer vacations. But there's another reason health officials are concerned: the possibility of the Zika virus being transmitted through blood donations.

The Food and Drug Administration has asked blood banks to reject donors who might be at risk for Zika, the mosquito-born virus that can cause birth defects. Anyone who has traveled to a country with a high Zika risk, or who has been intimate with someone who did, should not donate for four weeks, Shefali Luthra of Kaiser Health News reported on PBS.org.

We need to protect the blood supply. It would be a major scandal if there were cases of Zika transmitted particularly if it affected women of child-bearing age," Lawrence Gostin, a professor at Georgetown University and faculty director of its ONeill Institute for National and Global Health Law, said in the PBS report.

Moreover, "There is no widely available, government-approved blood test to screen donations, though one is being used on an experimental basis for blood collected in Puerto Rico and Houston," Luthra wrote.

So far, there have been few people turned away because of the potential for Zika exposure just one-tenth of 1 percent, Lutrha's report said. Any loss, however, is of concern to the America Red Cross, which supplies more than 40 percent of the blood needed by the nation's hospitals.

The Red Cross says donations always dip during the summer, and about 650 fewer blood drives are held during the week of July 4 than in other weeks of the year. That's an especially bad time for a decline, since August is usually the month with the most car accidents, and the Red Cross says a single car-accident victim can require as many as 100 pints of blood.

Right now, blood products are being distributed to hospitals faster than donations are coming in, which is why we are making this emergency request for donations, Nick Gehrig, communications director for Red Cross Blood Services, said in a statement.

Donations are urgently needed now to meet the needs of hospital patients in the coming days and weeks. If youve thought about giving blood and helping to save lives, now is the time to do it," Gehrig said.

To donate, you must be at least 17 years old (although in some states, you can donate at 16 with parental consent), weigh at least 110 pounds and be in good health.

While it takes just eight to 10 minutes to draw a pint of blood, the entire process takes about an hour and 15 minutes, the Red Cross says. To speed the process, however, the organization offers online registration called RapidPass that allows donors to fill out a health questionnaire before arriving at the collection site.

About 38 percent of Americans are eligible to donate blood, but fewer than 10 percent of us do, the Red Cross says. To learn where you can donate, go to redcrossblood.org or call 1-800-733-2767.
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From the book 'Outliers' comes proof that good health is more than just genetics
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Friends Jim Young, left, Mike Natale, Jeff Natale and Ryan Kiernan were on Greenwich High School football team together and Jim and Mike were captains. Jim, who was the youngest in Sherry Young's family, was welcome in the homes of the other three boys who still had siblings around and grandparents near. - photo by Sherry Young
As I look back on my life and the lives of others, both personally and in the reading I have done, I am convinced of the necessity of positive human contact in our lives. We are doubly blessed when we are able to make good friends or are a part of a family where we are accepted and loved.

Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers tells of a time in the 1950s when Dr. Stewart Wolf met a physician who practiced in the area of Roseto, Pennsylvania. Roseto was settled by a group of Italian families from Roseto, Italy, who re-created their life again in America.

This was in the 1950s before drugs and measures to prevent heart disease became important. In their conversation the physician said, You know, Ive been practicing for 17 years. I get patients from all over, and I rarely find anyone from Roseto under the age of 65 with heart disease.

Wolf was surprised by these words as, It was impossible to be a doctor, common sense said, and not see heart disease.

Wolf enlisted the aid of a sociologist and friend John Bruhn to help him. They found, There was no suicide, no alcoholism, no drug addiction, and very little crime. They didnt have anyone on welfare. Then we looked at peptic ulcers. They didnt have any of those either. These people were dying of old age. Thats it.

They checked into diet, genetics and possibilities of something in the foothills of eastern Pennsylvania but nothing made sense.

What they found was that Rosetans visited one another, stopping to chat in Italian on the street, say, or cooking for one another in their backyards. (Researchers) learned about the extended family clans that underlay the towns social structure. They saw how many homes had three generations living under one roof and how much respect grandparents commanded. They went to Mass at Our Lady of Mount Carmel and saw the unifying and calming effect of the church. They counted 22 separate civic organizations in a town of just under 2,000 people. They picked up on the particular egalitarian ethos of the community, which discouraged the wealthy from flaunting their success and helped the unsuccessful obscure their failures.

What they found eventually convinced the medical establishment to look beyond the individual and understand the culture people are part of their friends, families and town they came from. They determined that the people we surround ourselves with and the values of the world we inhabit have a profound effect on who we are.

Likely, this study could have been done with other ethnicities. However, my family's experiences with the Italian families in Connecticut ring true to the study. Our hungry and growing sons, especially our youngest son, Jim, who was left home alone with two beady-eyed parents, all had some memorable experiences being fed and loved in the Cos Cob multigenerational families. Proof of the African proverb, It takes a village to raise a child.

We live in an age when the contact we have with people often is on the internet, and many of us live among strangers. Unless we make the effort to reach out, we will become isolated, especially as we age. The Rosetan study is proof that reaching out and communicating may be good for our health.
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