Italy appeals for blood donors as summer stocks run critically low

Italy's national blood centre issued an urgent appeal for donors on Friday after warning that stocks were running critically low nationwide, according to The Local Italy. Hospitals in Lazio, Campania and Sicily are the worst affected, the report said, as the summer holiday period typically sees a drop in regular donations.

The appeal comes at the end of a brutal summer that has tested Italy's health system in multiple ways. Record-breaking temperatures across the continent have increased demand for medical care, and foreign coverage has documented how the heat has strained infrastructure from the northern industrial cities to the southern regions.

For Puglia, the blood shortage carries particular weight. The region's hospitals serve a population of nearly four million, including many elderly residents, and the summer months bring an influx of tourists to the Salento coast and the trulli towns of the Valle d'Itria, swelling the number of people who might need emergency care.