Safe Blood Starts with Me - libdoc.who.int - World Health Organization

Metropolitan North HealthService: the Hospital San Joséwas the centre for this blooddonation campaign within hospitalpersonnel, extending to schools inthe area about voluntary blooddonation. Visits to the blood bankwere organized, an audit on theclinical use of red cells andplasma and a clinical meeting toreport the results of the auditwere highlights of World HealthDay.Other health servicesactivitiesCatholic University MedicalSchool: information waschannelled to the public throughthe Catholic University TV onvoluntary blood donation andWorld Health Day. Blood wascollected by medical students incoordination with the Red Crossand articles were published by themedia on voluntary altruisticblood donations.Chilean Navy: an exhibition wasmounted by the Hospital NavalViña del Mar in the main hall andoutpatient clinics on World HealthDay and voluntary blooddonations. Further clinicalmeetings were organized withInternal Medicine, Surgery,Obstetrics and Anesthesiologyintroducing WHO concepts ofblood safety, the appropriateclinical use of blood and apresentation of the results of anaudit on the use of whole blood,red cells and plasma.SummaryAn evaluation of the activitiescarried out shows that:— The Chilean population issensitive to solidarity acts suchas voluntary blood donation,especially the youth, showingthat this could be attained inthe mid term.— The authorities understand theimportance of the problem andare very involved in theactivities of blood banks.— It was possible to demonstratefailures in the clinical use ofblood in all places were anaudit was performed, allowingmany hospitals to take actionand form Blood TransfusionCommittees.Valparaiso AgreementWe the undersigned, representativesof organizations attendingthe World Health Day ceremonyhere in the city of Valparaíso, inconsidering past experiences,hereby endorse the “ValaparaísoAgreement” as follows:Current situationBlood is essential for life, bloodtransfusions are needed for sometreatments, and there is currentlyno substitute for it.The only source of blood fortransfusion is blood donation.Donated blood can be fractionatedinto components, allowing thedevelopment of different areas ofmedicine. The fractionationprocess is more and moredemanding given the need toattain quality standards in linewith the health services and dothis within available resources.Although technological developmenthas provided alternatives tosome blood products, they are notalways used.In Chile, the blood supply is basedon family/replacement donations.The change from this system toone based on repeated, voluntary,altruistic blood donations, whichexhibit a lower incidence ofmarkers for infectious agents, is amedium term goal that dependsnot only on health workers, but onthe community as a whole.Blood transfusion, as with allhealth interventions, is not riskfree,necessitating a constantreview of clinical practices inprescribing blood.To increase the safety of the wholeprocess, we must simultaneouslycheck all links in the chain,starting with the blood donor,continuing with the processingand distribution and ending withthe appropriate use in the bloodreceiver. To assure these linksneeds the active participation of35 ▲ WORLD HEALTH DAY ▼ SAFE BLOOD STARTS WITH ME