NR ANJR
AU Watson,R.
TI EU sets standards for safe blood products
QU British Medical Journal 2003 Jan 4; 326(7379): 11
PT legal cases; news
VT
The European Union has adopted legislation setting high quality and safety standards for blood and blood products in a bid to restore long term public confidence in transfusions.
The new rules set testing, labelling, and traceability requirements. In addition, laboratories, hospitals, and other establishments that collect, handle, and process blood and blood components will be obliged to set up quality management systems.
The legislation, which comes amid concerns over contamination from the agent causing Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), has been widely welcomed.
The legislation was finally adopted by the European parliament in the same week that the UK government confirmed that it had bought an American blood plasma company to ensure that British patients had access to safe blood. This followed earlier concerns that the risk of CJD being transmitted through transfusions of blood collected in Britain might be higher than previously thought.
SP englisch
PO England