Blood screening in the Americas gets $4.9 million boost:
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has given $4.9 million to improve blood screening in the Americas over the next three years. The Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) aims to improve laboratory services and set up quality assurance and performance evaluation programmes. Around 1.5 million units of blood are not screened for hepatitis C, while 50,000 units of blood are not screened for HIV and hepatitis B, according to PAHO. Around a dozen countries in Central and South America do not screen all donated blood for these viruses. PAHO also aims to promote screening of Chagas disease and syphilis.