The San Diego Blood Bank said during one week in January, 400 people canceled appointments due to the flu or another sickness.
Recently blood supplies have been running low.
"We are beginning to ration some of the supply with the hospitals," Michele Corbett said. Corbett is vice president of marketing for the blood bank. "They are being very, very careful in how they use it. We’re also very low on platelets."
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In San Diego, the blood bank supplies Rady Children’s, Sharp and Kaiser hospitals. They said increasing flu numbers across the country are straining their supply access.
“Usually if there is a low supply we are able to kind of work it out across our partners," Corbett said. "But every blood bank is struggling right now."
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According to county health officials, the number of flu cases has been steadily decreasing. During the last week of December over 3,300 flu cases were reported. Just this week 600 were reported.
This season's influenza virus has been especially deadly, with a record 206 deaths already and 14,289 confirmed flu cases, according to San Diego County Health and Human Services.
