ABSTRACT
Background: As blood is a scarce and expensive resource, irrational blood usage places huge burden on health expenditures. In response to this challenge, governments and health care providers are developing different strategies to optimize blood utilization. Among these strategies is trying to raise the public awareness on the actual costs of the blood production and changing the cost recovery systems of blood and blood components.
Aims: This study aims to compare cost recovery and financing systems of blood and blood products in different countries.
Methods: This research was an email-based survey of 30 countries from four HDI categories. All related literature was reviewed.
Results: Out of 28 countries, 19 have blood and blood products that are provided totally free of charge to the patients. In nine countries blood and blood products are totally or partially chargeable to the patients.
Conclusions: In countries with low and lower-middle income economies, total or partial costs of blood and blood products are recovered directly from the patients. While countries in which blood and blood products are 'free of charge' for patients are mostly categorized in upper-middle- or high-income economies with well-developed healthcare and insurance systems. There is no clear relation between blood usage and the type of cost recovery system. However, having an efficient cost recovery system will help blood establishments to sustain their service delivery
ABSTRACT
Background: Availability and safety of blood transfusion is a major concern in countries affected by humanitarian emergencies. These emergencies increase demand for blood transfusion and make its delivery challenging and complex. Nevertheless, there is a lack of information on emergency preparedness and response capacity of blood transfusion services and on the challenges in meeting patients' needs.
Aims: To assess availability and safety of blood transfusion during humanitarian emergencies.
Methods: We searched PubMed and Index Medicus for the World Health Organization Eastern Mediterranean Region for data on availability and safety of blood transfusion during humanitarian emergencies. We also gathered information through a survey and during a regional consultation in Tunisia.
Results: We found 24 publications on disaster from 5 countries in the Region and 16 publications on disaster preparedness and blood transfusion in casualties and severe trauma outside the Region. However, none dealt with availability and safety of blood transfusion during humanitarian emergencies. Armed conflicts and terrorism, flooding and earthquakes are the most frequent emergencies with 1085% of the injured requiring blood transfusion. There are gaps in emergency preparedness and response, including human resources, transport and cold chain, supply of consumables and maintenance of equipment, power supply, and finances.
Conclusions: There is a need to integrate blood transfusion services in the overall national emergency preparedness and response, and provide assistance to affected countries to address identified gaps. Recommendations for individual countries need to be tailor made, along the lines of the regional strategic framework for blood safety and availability
Subject(s)
Blood Safety , Emergencies , Civil DefenseABSTRACT
Background: Transfusion-transmissible infections such as hepatitis B and hepatitis C are among the greatest threats to blood safety for transfusion recipients and pose a serious public health problem. The aim of this study was to assess the epidemiological aspects of hepatitis B and C in Kazakhstani donor's blood over the period 2000-2011
Methods: The data were obtained from the annual reports of the Republican Blood Center. The retrospective study was conducted from 2000 to 2011
Results: Over the study period in the republic a growth of volumes of procured blood from 312.4 to 398.0 units was noted, in total equaled to 4,277.8 units. The proportion of blood wasted increased from 8.3% to 8.7%. In the dynamics the proportion of viral hepatitis among all causes of blood wasted decreased from 29% to 15.5% [HBV] and from 33.5% to 9.9% [HCV]. The proportion of HBV and HCV in whole blood decreased considerably, in plasma and red cell concentrate the rates changed slightly. The average annual prevalence of HBV and HCV were 2.1% and 1.8%, respectively
Conclusion: Despite the reduction of viral hepatitis rates among blood donors in Kazakhstan the prevalence still remains high. The HBV prevalence is higher compared to HCV, which needs further investigations in the general population to address the issue