Australian Red Cross Blood Service

The Australian Red Cross Blood Service (ARCBS) is a branch of the Australian Red Cross. It is the body primarily responsible for blood donation and related services in Australia. Australian Red Cross Blood Service employs around 3,700 employees across scientific, medical and support services, processing over half a million non-remunerated blood donors each year.

The Blood Service is funded by the governments of Australia and is a division of Australian Red Cross.

The Red Cross's Australian blood services were initially managed by state-level organisations. Victoria's Blood Transfusion Service was founded in 1929, and by 1941 each state had its own Organ Transfusion Service. Also in 1941, the National Emergency Blood Transfusion Service (later the National Blood Transfusion Committee) was formed to coordinate the state groups. In 1945, the Red Cross took over blood and serum preparation units established by the Australian Army.

In 1995, a government report recommended the foundation of a separate national structure, and the ARCBS was formed in 1996, encompassing the old state and territory blood donation/transfusion services.

ARCBS and its predecessors had a long-standing relationship with the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories (CSL), a government medical body founded in 1916. The Red Cross supplied CSL with donated blood for use in research and manufacture of medical products (e.g. serum for transfusion).

In 1994, CSL was privatised, becoming CSL Limited. The ARCBS continued to supply CSL with donated blood.

Blood donated in Australia has been tested for Hepatitis B since 1972, HIV-1 since 1985, Hepatitis C since 1990, HIV-2 since 1992/3, and HTLV-1 since 1993.

As with other blood transfusion services, the ARCBS has had to strike a balance between protecting blood recipients against infection, and accepting enough donors to maintain an adequate supply of blood. This has led to debate over which categories of potential donors should be excluded. For example, to protect against CJD, the ARCBS now refuses donations from anybody who lived in the United Kingdom for a total of six months or more between 1980 and 1996.

...
Wikipedia