Red Cross Still Falls Short on Blood Processes

category: Dafé’s Café - Daily Dose of Medical News, MyDocHub
by Dafé,

Not something you want to hear from an organization that controls 43 percent of the nation’s blood supply, in essence making it the world’s largest single steward of blood, more than twice the size of the second-largest known blood collection operation.

While the American Red Cross is good at screening for HIV and hepatitis B, syphilis, malaria, and other forms of hepatitis are still problematic.

Failing to ask donors questions that would reveal their ineligibility to give blood is the most frequent errors cited by F.D.A. investigators. Interviewers are supposed to ask a donor whether he or she has traveled in an area where malaria is a problem, but that is not routinely done.

Dr. Kessler, a professor of pediatric medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, referring to the FDA and the American Red Cross said: “Leaving aside who’s at fault here, it’s not working.”

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2 Comments so far

d.rin | 17 July 2008, 07:10
what is congress and the FDA waiting for ?????????????
Response to New York Times coverage of Red Cross blood services « American Red Cross Youth | 17 July 2008, 11:44
[...] Response to New York Times coverage of Red Cross blood services Posted on July 17, 2008 by redcrossyouth The American Red Cross is no stranger to intense scrutiny from the government, private organizations and the American public. Today’s New York Times article regarding the organization’s efforts to reform blood collection and distribution processes is a hard-hitting piece that is reminiscent of scrutiny during 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and Senator Grassley’s call to reform the leadership structure. (see other coverage here and here) [...]