Blood and Blood Derivatives for the American People *

Interest in the development of programs to supply blood and its derivatives for civilian use is rapidly becoming widespread among health departments, medical societies, and hospitals. The wartime program of the American National Red Cross, sponsored by the Army and the Navy, made blood and its derivatives readily available to the armed forces, and their use has overwhelmingly demonstrated the great value of these products in military medical practice. That whole blood, blood plasma, and albumin were the foremost lifesavers of the war-wounded has been certified by the thousands of medical officers in all services on every front throughout the world. This fact needs no elaboration. Plasma and albumin and later whole blood were available to American fighting men everywhere through the Red Cross program which in the nearly four years that this country was in the war literally poured these life-saving fluids from civilian veins into the wounded fighters' bodies. More than thirteen and one-quarter million pints of blood were procured through 35 fixed blood donor centers and their 63 mobile units. This wartime blood donor program sponsored by the Army and the Navy came to a close on September 15, 1945, and the thousands of devoted workers, both paid and volunteer, wrote "finis" to their efforts. In the meantime, however, the American Red Cross had been considering the possibility of reconverting its wartime program for the armed forces into a service for civilians. In fact, as early as May, 1943, the Medical and Health Advisory Committee had given consideration to the question of the possible use of the crude material left over from the processing of serum albumin. In due course it was decided to convert this material into immune serum globulin (gamma globulin) for the prophylaxis and modification of measles among the civilian population. Arrangements for the processing and distribution were actually made and announced by June, 1944, and the operation, with certain improvements in the plan, was well under way by the spring of 1945.