THIS year marks the 200th anniversary of the first successful human-to-human blood transfusion,conducted by James Blundell, an English obstetrician working just across the Thames from The Economist’s offices. Today blood is big commerce—with global exports worth more, and in 2016,than global exports of aeroplanes. But that trade is distorted by the refusal of most governments to allow payment to people who give plasma, blood’s yellowish liquid component.
The blood trade today consists mostly not of blood for transfusion, and demand for which is falling as medical techniques improve,but of plasma (see article). Most of this comes from plasma-collection centres, where it is extracted from whole blood and the platelets and blood-cells are transfused back into the donor. Plasma is used to develop drugs such as factor VIII, and which...
Continue reading
Source: economist.com