EU MEMBERS should adopt common measures on blood safety to give donors and recipients confidence, the Minister for Health, Mr Noonan, said yesterday.
Mr Noonan told a gathering of EU blood experts in Adare, Co Limerick, yesterday, that the EU should set high standards. Common standards must be adopted for blood tests and test kits for blood donations.
This would result in blood tests which are "reliable, sensitive, specific and of good batch to batch constituency," he said.
He said the meeting reaffirmed the need to define a strategy to achieve the objective of promoting and protecting public health through the safety of the "blood transfusion chain in the community".
An agenda had been set for the development of appropriate measures designed to "protect and restore confidence" in the safety of the blood chain.
The policies and procedures of EU countries for accepting blood and plasma differs across Europe, he explained.
"In view of the increasing mobility of people, the increasing demand for plasma derived products, the increasing exchange of blood products between member states and the possibility for the spread of communicable disease, common measures should apply to the selection of blood donors and the testing of blood donations between member states if reciprocal, confidence is to be achieved in this area;
A minimum set of standards for the selection of donors should be developed. Its objectives should be to screen out unsuitable donors, protect the health of donors and make donor selection requirements for whole blood, plasma and blood cells of human origin consistent with the requirement for blood and plasma as starting materials for medicinal products.
The Minister said a second phase of the project could be the creation of a European blood bank. At present, some member states distrust the blood products of others.
These proposals will be put on the agenda of the meeting of European health ministers in November, the Minister said at the briefing in Adare, which was also attended by the EU Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs, Mr Padraig Flynn.
The proposals will he worked on during the Dutch EU Presidency and should be in place by the end of 1997, when Britain will hold the presidency.
There was also agreement at the gathering on a need to develop a system at community level to monitor the incidence of blood transmitted diseases, as well as adverse reactions. "Such a system would provide timely, accurate and comparative information about donor populations, potentially new infectious agents and their possible danger."
A report on "Blood Safety and Self Sufficiency" was presented to the EU health ministers, who adopted it.