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Abstracts of the 34th International Congress of the International Society of Blood Transfusion, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, September 3-8, 2016.

With the goal of ensuring universal access to safe blood and blood components, WHO has been at the forefront of the movement to improve blood safety and availability as mandated by successive World Health Assembly resolutions, the earliest dating from 1975, and Regional Committee resolution in 1987. However, many countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) still face major challenges in ensuring availability, safety, quality, accessibility, affordability, and clinical efficacy of blood and blood components. In addition, humanitarian emergencies and armed conflicts in many countries in the Region increased the demand for blood and blood components and made delivery of these lifesaving products challenging and complex. Data on blood safety and availability was collected for the period 1 January to 31 December 2013 from countries in the EMR through a survey linked to the WHO Global Database on Blood Safety (GDBS). Data entry and analysis was performed using Microsoft Office Access (2010 version). The findings indicate gaps in all areas of the key elements of a national blood system, including, leadership and governance, coordination and collaboration of national blood systems, provision of safe blood and blood components, patient blood management and clinical transfusion, and quality system and management. In 2013, about 7 million units of whole blood were collected. Blood donation rates ranged from 0.6 to 28.9 per 1,000 population. The proportion of voluntary non-remunerated blood donation (VNRD) was 65.8% and 34.7% of VNRD was from first-time donors. The survey showed that half of the countries in the Region have national blood transfusion services. However, despite the existence of these services and their vital role in the implementation of essential interventions for Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, delivery on Universal Health Coverage, and achievement of the 2012–2016 strategic public health priorities of the Region, overall, inadequate attention was given to blood transfusion services as an essential part of the national health system. WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean developed a 10 year (2016– 2025) Regional Strategy for Blood Safety through a broad consultation with national blood transfusion service providers, regional and international organizations and experts working in the field. The strategy addresses the identified gaps from the GDBS with the aim of improving the health of nearly 660 million people in the 22 countries in the Region. It will guide countries to develop and strengthen national blood systems to ensure the continuity, sufficiency, sustainability and security of national supplies of safe and efficacious blood and blood components to meet their national need. This strategy will play an important role to integrate blood transfusion services into the healthcare system as a crosscutting service and to support the implementation of WHO resolutions and Executive Board Decisions, namely, on the safety, quality and availability of blood and blood components (WHA28.72, WHA58.13, WHA63.12 and EM/RC34/12); on Guiding Principles on Human Cell, Tissue and Organ Transplantation (WHA63.22); on Principles for global consensus on the donation and management of blood, blood components and medical products of human origin (EB136.2); on Hepatitis (WHA67.6); on Sickle-cell anaemia (WHA59.20); and on Thalassemia and other haemoglobinopathies (EB118.R1).