Transfusion Medicine -Is Its Future Secure?

 "Transfusion medicine will continue to be a little like walking through a tropical rainforest, where the known paths are clear but still require careful navigation, and new unseen threats may still lurk around the next corner to trap the unwary." - Ian M. Franklin, professor of transfusion medicine.

AFTER the worldwide AIDS epidemic cast the spotlight on blood in the 1980's , efforts to eliminate its "unseen threats" intensified.  Still, huge obstacles remain.  In June 2005, the World Health Organization acknowledged: "The chance of receiving a safe transfusion . . .varies enormously from one country to another." Why?

In many lands there are no nationally coordinated programs to ensure safety standards for the collection, testing, and transport of blood and blood products.  Sometimes blood supplies are even stored dangerously-in poorly maintained domestic refrigerators and picnic boxes!  Without safety standards in place, patients can be adversely affected by the blood drawn from someone who lives hundreds - if not thousands -of miles away.

Next time: Transfusion Medicine-Is Its Future Secure? - Disease Free Blood-A Moving Target

From the jw.org publications