Operation Department

2015/04/22

 Blood for medical use

The 2014 annual donation goals included: (1)  whole blood collections (250 ml/bag) of 2,217,000 bags; (2) 215,500 apheresis platelet collections; (3) 500 ml blood donation rate reaching 39.6%. The actual achievements are as follows: whole blood collections (250 ml/bag) of 2,286,164 bags, and 232,361apheresis platelet collections, which total of 2,518,525 bags; the 500 ml blood donation rate was 43.1%. All three of the aforementioned annual goals were reached.
 
The blood donation goals mentioned above were set to meet the needs of domestic medical institutions. The Foundation’s 2014 analysis shows that with regards to the changes in demand for blood products, the supply of red cell products (whole blood and redblood cell) was 2,186,290 bags, a growth of 0.6% from 2013 (2,173,209bags); platelet products (random and aphresis platelet) grew 0.1%; and plasma products (frozen fresh plasma, frozen plasma and cryo-precipitate) decreased by 2.4%. In 2014, the total blood collections (2,518,525 bags) grew around 1.1% from that in 2013 (2,490,434bags). The blood donation population rate was 7.50%, almost the same as the7.54% in 2013, and is still greater than the rate in many advanced countries.
 
To enhance blood quality for blood transfusion patients, the Foundation continued to promote apheresis platelets throughout 2014, and the annual supply totaled 229,545 bags, accounting for 91.7% of the total platelet products supply. Leukocyte- reduction apheresis platelets which accounted for 30.4% of the apheresis platelets supply, the supply grew 14.4% from that in 2013. To reduce adverse blood transfusion reactions, improve patients’ well-being and improve blood quality, advanced countries inEurope, North America, Asia and other regions, including specifically Austria, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Holland, Spain and the UK, have implemented measures to universal Leukocyte reduction before blood products storage. These types of blood products have a significant advantage regarding reduced blood transfusion reactions compared with the Leukocyte- reduction products made from stored blood prepared at hospitals bedside and then have the Leukocyte reduced. Currently, the Foundation’s supply of blood products with Leukocyte reduced before storage include Leukocyte- reduced packed RBCs and Leukocyte-reduced apheresis platelets, both of which have become the key of the Foundation’s promotion in recent years and have been accepted by many public and private medical institutions.
 
According to the minimum suitability of supply set by the World Health Organization (WHO), the red blood cells for blood transfusion is "at least 10  bags of red blood cells per one thousand population”. The red blood cells actually provided by the Foundation to hospitals in 2014 had about 47.5 bags (blood bags converted into the international standard, note 1) of red blood cells per one thousand population; this number is approximate to the statistics of theUnited States in 2011. Therefore, the domestic blood supply is not only adequate, but also reaches the same level as advanced countries.
 
Domestic plasma-derived products - "domestic plasma-derived products Yikang"
Plasma-derived products includes suchas albumin, immunoglobulin, coagulation factor VIII and coagulation factor IX, which are required by many general hospital patients and hemophilia patients. However, domestically required plasma-derived products has been almost entirely dependent on imports. The emergence of domestic plasma-derived products can be traced back to the end of 2006 when a shortage of international plasma-derived products supply caused original importers to withdraw from Taiwan’s market due to a lower  reimbursement price by national health insurance for human immunoglobulin. At that time, the Department of Health invitedthe Foundation and pharmaceutical representatives to discuss a viable solution and then formulated a domestic blood for domestic use policy to ensure patients' rights. Since 2007, the Foundation has been collecting plasma and sending it directly to the fractionation factory to have it prepared  for domestic plasma-derived products and, in 2008, began to supply the finished products for domestic needs, thus breaking  the long monopoly of imported blood-relateddrugs. The contribution of domestic plasma-derived products to national health insurance is self-evident.
 
In 2014, the Foundation continued to cooperate with the Government on the "domestic blood for domestic use" health policy and collected 31,049 kilograms of plasma, which was divided into three batches and shipped to Australia CSL plasma fractionation plant to be processed into four kinds of "domestic plasma-derived products Yikang", which included 20% human serum albumin injection, human immunoglobulin for intravenous injection, 250IU coagulation factor VIII and 500IU coagulation factor IX injection, in order to provide a sustainable supply to domestic medical institutions for the health of Taiwan’s citizens.
 
Furthermore, on the basis ofhumanitarian-aid and the proper use of valuable medical resources, in November 2014, the Foundation once again donated 3,840 bottles of eighth coagulation factor VIII to the WFH (World Federation of Hemophilia), which then transferred it to countries in Africa (such as Cameron, Ethiopia, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Marley, Togo and Ghana) and the Middle East (Sultan).Taiwan blood donors’ love and generosity not only benefits Taiwan’s citizens, but also people around the world.
 
Strengthening blood safety to prevent blood transfusion infection
In order to strengthen blood donor screening and eliminate cases of HIV infection after blood transfusion, the Foundation continued the promotion of the “reduce HIV donation project "throughout 2014, and the blood centers in the donation sites used promos and posters to remind high-risk groups not to donate blood. Each blood center, blood chamber and blood vehicle has a "private interview space" to enable blood donors to honestly answer the questionnaire and related questions in a private environment. Moreover, the Foundation held in-service training for blood safety enhancement to improve blood personnel’s screening and interview skills for high-risk groups. "Conscience callback" leaflets and posters are also updated on a regular basis to provide information about hospitals commissioned by the Centers for Disease Control for anonymous AIDS screening and to urge donors not to use blood donation as a method for HIVscreening.
 
The Foundation regularly conducts practical training to strengthen the capacity and skills of its interview personnel. In 2014, the Foundation continued to invite experts to conduct the "blood collection interview training” course for each blood center and also conducted mystry audits in order to properly implement interview policies and reduce donations by high-risk groups.
 
Note1:
International standard blood bag: This refers to European and American blood bags’ standard volume (450 ~ 500 ml) as one donation. In Asia, thereare different specifications of 200/400 ml or Taiwan’s 250/500 ml. Since WHO data was quoted for comparison, the total supply of (whole blood and red blood cells) was 2,186,290 bags (250ml perbag) / (23,000,000 population) x (1,000)/2(converted to 500ml)=47.5 / 1000 population.
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