Ensuring safe blood in the Americas

ABSTRACT

This issue will deal not only with blood banks as the places where blood is collected and processed, but also with the whole spectrum of transfusion medicine. Blood has a special place in the culture of our civilizations as symbolizing strength and the vital force of life. Its use in forms that may seem macabre to us now found its way into many ancient rituals. All physicians regard blood with some awe since so far there is no substitute for it, and its transfusion may be regarded as the first organ transplant ... Most of the blood collected in Latin America and the Caribbean is still through replacemrnt donation. Although this practice is being strongly discouraged, it is easy to see its genesis. There must be few more gratifying feelings than that of giving one's own blood not to go into some great amorphous pool but to help someone who is known and loved. We have seen increased promotion of standards and norms for blood banks in the countries and sustained efforts to rationalize the large number of blood banks that are currently operating under a large number of different schemes in the countries. Because there is increased screening of blood, the number of transfusional infections has ben reduced, and this has been documented very clearly in the case of Chagas' disease. I have been pleased to see the emphasis placed on education, even by distance, and the dissemination of both technical and popular information (AU)