Washington, DC, February 28, 2002 (PAHO) - The importance of the issue of blood safety in the Americas has become a central

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), has launched a Regional Blood Safety Initiative, aimed at improving the quality of blood for transfusion in the Americas, emphasizing the promotion of voluntary blood donation and complete screening of donated blood.

"This initiative is especially important in the Americas, because blood for transfusion is obtained from voluntary, unpaid donors in only a small number of the Region's countries and territories," according to Dr. José R. Cruz, PAHO's regional advisor on laboratory and blood services.

"We want to raise awareness in the Americas about the importance of blood safety and encourage every country to establish national programs and pass legislation on blood safety," he emphasizes.

The Regional Safe Blood Initiative, launched in 2001 with the support of a $4.9 million donation from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, aims to ensure that by the end of 2003 all units of blood in all the countries of the Region will be screened for HIV, hepatitis B and C, syphilis, and Chagas' disease.

One of the main requirements for a safe blood supply is that donations be from volunteers, rather than remunerated or replacement donors--that is, family and friends of the patient who needs the transfusion.

Volunteer donations are linked directly with another major problem facing the Region: the blood shortage. PAHO's technical cooperation has been emphatic about processing blood to guarantee it is screened properly. However, a new strategy based on the promotion of volunteer donations was implemented in 2000.

All the countries of the Region, except for Cuba, are experiencing a shortage of blood. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, for a country or community to have an adequate blood supply, it must collect the equivalent needed for 5 percent of the population, according to PAHO.

Only Cuba meets that goal in the Americas. The United States has 4.6 percent; Canada, 3.3 percent; Uruguay, 3.5 percent; and in the Caribbean, Curaçao has 4.1 percent and Aruba, 3.5 percent. The rest of the countries in the Region have only 1 percent, which makes them highly deficient, PAHO experts say.

"PAHO, in collaboration with a group of anthropologists, developed methodological guidelines to explore the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of the general public regarding blood banks and the people who work in them," says Dr. Cruz. Studies have been carried out in El Salvador, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina, Paraguay, Peru, Guatemala, Bolivia, Cuba and Jamaica.

The purpose of this research is to gain an understanding of the factors that encourage and discourage volunteer blood donation. During the launch of the Regional Safe Blood Initiative, anthropologist Eugenia Saenz de Tejada presented the findings of these studies, which confirmed that serious technical limitations and lack of supplies in blood banks are adversely affecting the willingness of people to donate blood.

"The two factors most responsible for this negative reaction are certain myths and the mistaken idea that donating blood will cause people to lose weight, gain weight, or spread disease," said Ms. Saenz. "The majority of volunteer donors have been donating blood because someone asked them to."

"In 1994 practically no country screened blood for certain diseases such as hepatitis C, while today it is common practice. We still have a long way to go, however, since in Bolivia, for example, blood is screened less now even though it seems that the people who donate blood are more likely to be suffering from some disease," points out Dr. Cruz.

He added, "Working together, we can improve the safety of blood bank services throughout the Hemisphere and meet the targets set by the Region's ministers of health: screening all blood and ensuring that all blood banks participate in quality control programs."

PAHO serves as the Regional Office for the Americas of the World Health Organization. Officially established in 1902, it is the world's oldest health organization and works with all the countries of the Americas to improve the health and raise living standards of their people.