Global Database on Blood Safety: summary report 2008

Overview

Blood transfusion saves lives and improves health, but millions of patients needing transfusion do not have timely access to safe blood. Despite ongoing efforts, it will still be many years before artificial blood substitutes can widely replace the donated human blood.

The WHO programme on Blood Transfusion Safety has started an annual survey of key quantitative blood safety indicators from Member States. The objective of the survey is to assess the global situation on blood safety, monitor trends and progress and identify priority countries for support. A good response rate was seen in data collection for 2006 with responses being received from 150 countries, covering 84% of the world's population.