According to WHO, of 135 countries surveyed, “79 countries collect over 90% of their blood supply from voluntary unpaid blood donors however, 56 countries collect more than 50% of their blood supply from family/replacement or paid donors.” In general, voluntary donation is more prevalent among “high-income countries,” though “middle-income” and “low-income” countries have been trending towards higher rates of volunteer donors in recent years. Ĭountries around the world differ on which methods are used most often (and, which are legally sanctioned). This is often a family member but can also be someone who has been asked or hired by the family to donate on the patient’s behalf. The third model, family/replacement, requires that a patient in need of a transfusion provide their own donor at the time treatment is needed. ![]() And a paid system is also what you’d expect: Donors are given monetary compensation for their donated blood. ![]() Its definition is fairly straightforward: Donors are not provided monetary compensation for their donation. As previously stated, voluntary blood donation is what we rely on here in the U.S. Globally, there are three models used to provide blood to patients: volunteer, paid and family/replacement. While we will get into the reasons that volunteer donors are the “gold standard” below, first, a bit of context. While paying donors for transfusable products is legal in the United States, it is highly discouraged for a number of reasons that have been repeatedly touted by the World Health Organization (WHO) and are backed by scientific data. The short answer is, if a donation is paid for, hospitals are unlikely to use it to transfuse patients due to safety to concerns, and, since 1978, the FDA has required blood centers to label any donations for transfusion as coming from either paid or volunteer donors. Do we not value our donors? Is it too costly? Too logistically challenging? It’s not uncommon for SBC team members to receive questions as to why SBC does not pay donors who generously give their blood.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |