El Salvador Hospitals Lacking Blood
Blood reserves have registered a substantial fall in Salvadoran public hospitals, where poor people are treated, the country's director of blood banks, Graciela Echegoyen, said.

The existence of blood is minimal. It has been reduced by 30 percent, so it is hardly enough to treat emergencies.

And this also affects the only children's hospital for the poor, said Echegoyen, who added that prospects for a prompt solution are bleak.

In her remarks on occasion of the World's Volunteer Blood Donor Day, the Salvadoran health official reiterated that the lack of this vital element intensified after the Holy Week due to violence affecting the country in the last few months.

She stressed that people's willingness to donate blood has been reduced and insisted in the need to raise awareness on the importance of this altruistic gesture.