Blood products: unmet needs for essential medicines

Blood is the source of more than 30 medicinal products, of which some are listed as essential medicines by WHO. 1 WHOWHO Model Lists of Essential Medicines. https://www.who.int/medicines/publications/essentialmedicines/en/Date: 2019 Date accessed: October 7, 2019 Google Scholar Essential blood medicines, as defined by WHO, include whole blood, cellular components (red blood cell concentrates and platelet concentrates), fresh frozen plasma, and various plasma protein derivatives such as clotting factor concentrates for substitutive therapy of haemophilia and preparations of γ globulins to treat immunodeficiencies, exposure to tetanus and rabies, or to prevent haemolytic disease in newborns. 1 WHOWHO Model Lists of Essential Medicines. https://www.who.int/medicines/publications/essentialmedicines/en/Date: 2019 Date accessed: October 7, 2019 Google Scholar The recognition of blood products—including blood for transfusion—as essential medicines highlights their crucial importance in any health-care system and stresses the need for governments to assure adequate supply, quality, and safety, in line with the 2010 World Health Assembly Resolution. 2 WHASixty-third World Health Assembly: availability, safety and quality of blood products. http://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA63/A63_R12-en.pdfDate: 2010 Date accessed: October 7, 2019 Google Scholar Nevertheless, the available data highlight a globally unmet need for blood products. The global need and availability of blood products: a modelling studyOur data suggest that the gap between need and supply is large in many low-income and middle-income countries, and reinforce that the WHO target of 10–20 donations per 1000 population is an underestimate for many countries. A continuous expansion and optimisation of national transfusion services and implementation of evidence-based strategies for blood availability is needed globally, as is more government support, financially, structurally, and through establishment of a regulatory oversight to ensure supply, quality, and safety in low-income and middle-income countries. Full-Text PDF