title: Blood safety and availability: continuing challenges in China's blood banking system.
abstract: Social and economic development, along with increased health care coverage, has caused a sharp increase in the clinical demand for blood in China. Whole blood collection has increased rapidly in the past decade but has failed to keep pace with the ever-increasing demand. Overall, the country's blood safety has been improved with 99% of whole blood donations collected from voluntary unpaid donors. However, the unmet clinical demand for blood and the increasing incidence of human immunodeficiency virus and syphilis in the general population pose new challenges to China's blood banking system. To ensure a safe and adequate blood supply, continued efforts are required to recruit and retain a sufficient number of low-risk voluntary blood donors, improve donor prescreening and blood testing process, ease donor restrictions, and strengthen patient blood management.
authors.affiliation: College of Nursing and Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts, Boston, Massachusetts; The Institute of Blood Transfusion, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Chengdu, China; Department of Nursing, Hallmark Health System, Boston, Massachusetts; Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins Medical Institution, Baltimore, Maryland.
authors.forename: Ling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Jing-Xing
authors.initials: JX
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Lori
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Stevens
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ness
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shan
mesh_terms: D001771:Blood Banks / Q000592:standards* / Q000639:trends*; D001782:Blood Donors / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D058731:Blood Safety / Q000639:trends*; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D012307:Risk Factors; D013587:Syphilis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*