Australian Red Cross Lifeblood
| File:Australian Red Cross Lifeblood logo.svg | |
| Legal status | Not-for-profit organisation |
|---|---|
| Purpose | Collection and distribution of human medical products |
Region | Australia |
| Products |
|
Parent organization | Australian Red Cross |
Formerly called | Australian Red Cross Blood Service |
Australian Red Cross Lifeblood, simply known as Lifeblood, is a branch of the Australian Red Cross responsible for the collection and distribution of blood and biological products in Australia. Lifeblood employs around 3,700 employees across scientific, clinical and support services, processing over one and a half a million blood donations each year. Lifeblood is primarily funded by the Australian Government and state and territory governments.
History
On 15 November 2019, the Australian Red Cross Blood Service changed its name and branding to Australian Red Cross Lifeblood, citing its increasing responsibility for non-blood products such as microbiota, tissue and organs and breast milk.[1][2]
Infectious diseases
As with other blood transfusion services, the Red Cross has had to strike a balance between protecting blood recipients against infection, and accepting enough donors to maintain an adequate supply of blood. This has led to debate over which categories of potential donors should be excluded. In 2003, a federal government report found that despite the introduction of hepatitis C screening from February 1990, infected donors were told to keep donating until July of that same year; a total of 20,000 people were estimated to have been infected with hepatitis C via blood products. Some infected blood was given to CSL and may have been used in thousands of CSL products, although it has not been shown that any of these products caused infection in the recipients.[3] In April 2022, the Therapeutic Goods Administration accepted the submission of Lifeblood and the University of New South Wales and removed the rule that made people who had lived in the United Kingdom for more than six months between 1980 and 1996 ineligible. Before the change came into effect in July 2022, these donors were unable to donate due to the risk of human variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (vCJD, or "mad cow disease") exposure.[4]
See also
References
- ↑ "About". Australian Red Cross Lifeblood. Retrieved 30 October 2021.
To recognise this, in November 2019 we changed our name to Australian Red Cross Lifeblood.
- ↑ "Australian Red Cross Lifeblood [animation]". YouTube. 30 October 2021. Archived from the original on 22 December 2021. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
- ↑ "Why infected donors' blood was given to patients". 15 May 2003.
- ↑ "UK blood donation 'mad cow' rule has changed — for good". Australian Red Cross Lifeblood. Retrieved 29 August 2022.
External links
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- Lifeblood website for health professionals