Each year, contaminated blood causes disease in thousands of people in Latin America and the Caribbean who have received a blood transfusion. In 1999 alone, some 20,000 patients were infected with Hepatitis C. Thousands more were infected with Hepatitis B, HIV, Chagas disease, Syphilis, and other dangerous diseases.
Blood is a life giving fluid - a gift given by one person to another.
It can not be made artificially. The Safe Blood program aims to improve the quality of the blood supply to assure that every person recieveing a transfusion can count on the blood being free of life-threatening diseases. One of every five people in the world will need donated blood at least once in their lifetime. To help protect the safety of the blood supply for the thousands of patients who require blood each year select this link .