Skip to main content

Red Cross hopes a chance to win Super Bowl tickets will encourage blood donations

To counter diminishing blood donations, which is typical for this time of year, the American Red Cross is offering a chance to win tickets to Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara, California.

“All who come to donate with the Red Cross in the month of January will be entered to win two tickets to the Super Bowl,” said Stephanie Babyak, with the Red Cross of the National Capital Region, which serves D.C., Maryland and Virginia.

Whoever wins will also get roundtrip airfare and hotel accommodations in the Bay Area. The game is scheduled for Feb. 8 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, home of the San Francisco 49ers.

Babyak said while the blood supply in the D.C. region is fairly stable right now, they want to stock up for a demand they know is coming in the weeks ahead.

“Every two seconds, someone needs blood or platelets for transfusions,” she said. “If someone has a car accident, the need is constant.”

Babyak said people who want give blood can go to the Red Cross website, enter their ZIP code and find a donation site nearby.

She said type O, A-negative and B-negative blood are most urgently needed.

Tools to fight hantavirus show promise despite limited funding. Now researchers hope to continue

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — When a rare but deadly rodent-borne virus struck passengers on a cruise ship and seemed to be spreading, there were no treatments for those who fell ill and no vaccines to protect others. That was the case even though it wasn't a novel germ that the world had never seen before, like the virus that caused the coronavirus pandemic. It was a hantavirus, one of a family of viruses that have been known for decades and are thought to exist around the world. Teams of researchers, including in Chile, Argentina and the United States, have long been trying to find and develop drugs and vaccines. But because the viruses are relatively rare and don't spread easily between people, there hasn't been enough sustained investment by governments, global health groups, or drug companies to pay for the extensive safety and efficacy testing needed to make them available. Still, there have been some promising developments. Researchers on Wednesday published a hint that a drug used for an autoimmune disease may help hantavirus patients fight off the most deadly symptoms.
Read Next Story

Related stories

Experimental pill promises new hope for deadly pancreatic cancer

New cancer treatment at Georgetown hospital uses a patient’s own tumor cells

No evidence it helps: Doctors warn against adolescents self-medicating with cannabis