What Happens to Every Blood Donation?

While the blood supply is safer than ever, the Red Cross has continued to make important advances in testing and processing.
Assuring the safety of the blood supply is a high-tech process requiring at least nine specific tests; proper processing, labeling, and storage; and vigilant quality control.

Routine donations are now tested for HIV and hepatitis C through nucleic acid testing (NAT), an investigational test that may reduce the "window period" — the time between a virus infecting the blood and the body forming antibodies that can be detected.

The Red Cross has also made progress in providing a universally leukoreduced blood supply (removal of contaminated white cells), with virtually all blood provided as leukoreduced products in 2001. This is important because leukocytes (white blood cells) may not be tolerated well when transfused with red blood cells.