Topic: Blood Supply Safety
Country: Italy
Delegate Name: Kyle Callaghan
School: Forest Hills Northern High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Italy position papers GLIMUN 2010 committees
The safety of a nation’s blood supply is determined in this case by the likelihood of one contracting disease upon receiving a blood transfusion under medical care in that particular country. Italy is very active in encouraging their citizens to give blood; most businesses will give their workers an entire day off just for blood donations. Considering this and Italy's first world status, one could easily assume they have a relatively safe blood supply. This is indeed correct.
According to a study of 1,079,281 repeat blood donors in Italy, the risk of developing a transfusion-transmitted infection (TTI) is very low, particularly human immunodeficiency virus. HIV risk has been low for quite some time thanks to innovations such as the COBAS AmpliScreen HIV-1 v1.5 Test, but it is only since 2001 that the risks have decreased for hepatitis B and hepatitis C (HBV and HBC, respectively), due mainly to the introduction of mandatory viral detection tests for HCV and recent nucleic acid testing for HBV.
But despite fairly successful reduction attempts for HIV, HBV, and HCV, the three big ones, the blood supply may not be safe for long. West Nile Virus (WNV) made its way to Italy in 2008, becoming a threat to the nation’s incoming blood supply and the management of the national blood system. Steps have been taken to control and contain WNV, but their effectiveness is not yet measurable.
In 2001, Italy’s Ministry of Health repealed a law that banned blood donation from homosexuals, which may have slightly altered the success of the HBV nucleic acid testing.
Due to Italy's moderate success in achieving healthy a blood supply, Italy proposes the global standardization of mandatory viral detection tests, as well as a UN World Blood Bank that nations can each use. In order to keep this supply from being hogged by a few nations, supply will be divided among nations in allotments corresponding to population.
