Why Blood?
Blood is a vital clinical resource.
The Challenges
There are challenges in getting sufficient safe blood to the world’s poorest communities. Every day in these countries, people die because of a shortage of blood.
GBF helps blood collectors in these countries by providing money, equipment, training and other forms of support. A particular focus is encouraging voluntary blood donation – the key to a safer and more plentiful blood supply.
120Million
units of blood are collected globally each year.
Half of these donations are collected in high-income countries, home to less than a fifth of the world’s population.
Very few low-income countries have policy & legislative frameworks for the collection, testing, processing, storage & distribution of blood.
There aren’t enough volunteer blood donors to meet patient needs, so low-income countries rely on family replacement and paid donors.
Blood is expensive to collect, test, process, store, and distribute and puts a big strain on the finances of developing health services.
Countries using paid or family donors have higher rates of infected blood units than countries with voluntary unpaid blood donors.
60 countries
fail to meet this threshold
1%
of the world’s population needs to give blood regularly to sustain the blood supply.
between 5% – 10%
of all HIV infections worldwide are transfused from
contaminated blood & blood products.
only 1/3
of blood collected in low-income countries is separated into blood components, so a donation can only help one person instead of up to three.
Whole blood can help 1 patient.
Blood components can help up to 3 patients.
In 2016, 170 countries pledged to the United Nations Development Programme to achieve 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
Blood safety and sufficiency play a vital role is achieving these three Sustainable Development Goals
Good health and well-being
Reduced Inequalities
Sustainable Cities and Communities
100% voluntary blood donation is possible.
LEARN MORE ABOUT BLOOD SAFETY
Why safe blood matters and how we achieve it.
fund our mission
Be the reason someone gets a second chance at life. Help us build a world where no woman, child, or accident victim loses the fight because of a lack of blood. Together, we can make survival the norm — not the exception.
