Topic: Blood Supply Safety
Country: France
Delegate Name: Brendan Burgess
School: Saline High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All France position papers GLIMUN 2010 committees
France has taken many precautions to ensure that it has a safe blood supply. How safe a blood supply is can be measured by the amount of people who get a transmitted disease from receiving blood. In France that number is extremely low. To ensure that its blood supply is safe, the blood supply is regularly tested after it is received by the organization that collects the blood. All most all blood is collected by a civilian agency , the EFS, which is required to follow set rules that are laid out by the French Government as part of the EU. These laws are designed to ensure that the supply of blood for transfusions are as safe as possible with a special emphasis on the prevention of HIV. A commission that was recently funded by the EFS found that 52% of people in France have donated there blood at some point in their life, yet there still is a very low infections rates. Men who are homosexual are banned from donating blood because of the 17% HIV infection rate in that community, versus the 0.2% infection rates among heterosexual men. If directions about blood donation are correctly followed then there is a very low chance of HIV even ending up in supply, and that is even before the blood is tested. All blood is also checked for Hep C and B as well as syphilis. The exact approach and tests are often changed to better prevent the contraction of these diseases and others.
However, France recognizes the need to create a safe blood supply in developing worlds as well as protecting already safe supplies. Therefore, France is open to any reasonable and original ideas to deal with this emerging issue.
