Improving Blood Safety
You can help protect the thousands of people who need blood
each year.
Blood is a life giving fluid - a gift given by one person to another. It can
not be manufactured. Blood is needed every day by mothers and infants
who experience complications during childbirth, victims of accidents or
violence, and needing surgery, and many others.
Yet each year, contaminated blood causes disease in thousands of people
in Latin America and the Caribbean including Hepatitis B and C, HIV, Chagas
disease, Syphilis, and other dangerous diseases.
Along with our partner, the Pan American Health Organization, the Foundation
helped launch the Regional Blood Safety Initiative. This initiative is
improving the quality of the blood supply to assure that every person
receiving a transfusion can count on the blood being free of life-threatening
diseases. Your support can help to:
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Fact:
One of every five people in the world will need donated blood at least once in their lifetime.
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- Recruit healthy voluntary blood through an intensive public awareness
campaign
- Train blood technicians and clinical leaders in proper techniques
for blood screening and handling
- Provide accurate testing kits to blood banks
- Establish quality control programs among all blood banks in Latin
America and the Caribbean
The Regional Blood Safety Initiative has already had measurable
success in protecting the safety of the blood supply, and there is
much more work to be done.
The Regional Blood Safety Initiative is a wonderful example of how your
support can make a life saving difference. Please make a gift today.
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