Safeguards in Blood Supply: A National and European Challenge

Abstract

Today, the safe and adequate supply with blood products is taken for granted. However, the nationwide allocation of such blood products is not based on a large-scale production in pharmaceutical plants, but on the altruistic help of millions of volunteer and healthy blood donors. Historically, seminal dis-coveries such as the ABO/RhD blood groups, the transfusion rules derived from them, as well as developments in the field of medical technology, which allow to manufacture of storable and standardized blood products have contributed signifi-cantly to the success of transfusion medicine. Many medical achievements would be unimaginable without the efficient, safe and professionally organized blood supply. This progress has been discontinued in the 1990‘s by the emergence of ac-quired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) of which the in-fectious agent (human immunodeficiency virus; HIV) has been spread also by blood products and plasma derivates. Great ef-forts and the deployment of big resources have been necessary to restore the faith of people in the treatment with blood prod-ucts (hemotherapy). The current issue of T

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