Blood Transfusion Essay

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Blood transfusions have become a common part of medical care with nearly 5 million Americans a year receiving a transfusion. Blood transfusions are used in the treatment of many different conditions, from replacing blood lost in surgeries or injuries to fighting diseases like liver disease, anemia, and bleeding disorders like hemophilia (Nglbi.nih.gov, 2014). Blood collection and transfusion are overseen by many different agencies including the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Through these agencies work in donor screening and surveillance, blood transfusions usually cause no adverse reactions in the recipient and are considered a safe medical procedure. Despite this, blood safety remains an important public health matter both due to the seriousness of some adverse reactions when they do occur and the need for preparedness in reacting to future blood safety issues that can suddenly arise when new bloodborne diseases emerge. It is for these reasons that Healthy People 2020 has made reducing the proportion of averse reactions from the medical use of blood and blood products one of their objectives. There are several different kinds of adverse reactions associated with blood transfusions. While the 2011 National Blood Collection and Utilization Survey from the HHS showed a 0.24% adverse reaction rate from blood transfusions, the participation in the hemovigilance network is low and so they expect the rate of adverse reactions is higher than what they are able to report (NBCUS, 2011). The CDC has established a hemovigilance module to track adverse reactions to blood transfusions for the purpose of understanding the rea... ... middle of paper ... ... that donor’s blood will be transfused. Epidemiologists need to work fast to identify the disease and take measures to combat repeated transmissions through infusions. Blood safety is an important issue. People end up needing blood transfusions for many reasons that all mean they have already entered the medical system needing care for injuries or disease, yet there is a risk that their treatment can hurt or even kill them. Public health has made tremendous strides in blood safety over the past few decades, but there is still more that needs to be done. Because of how broad the donation system is, individual treatment of these adverse reactions is not a good preventative measure and instead this must be seen as a public health issue. Increased reporting, studies, and analysis should be done to decrease the number of adverse reactions to blood and blood products.

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