PREVIOUSLY, the Shanghai (Red Cross) Blood Centre used bottles which were repeatedly sterilized. Now it uses disposable equipment which has been sterilized at 121 C. The blood donation site is also sterilized twice everyday.

All would-be donors should first register their personal data, such as their record of blood donations and diseases. Before donation, a physical examination covers blood pressure, heart and lungs, spleen and liver. Doctors also look for skin disease, serious disability, anthropathy, lymph problems, struma tumefaction and icterus.

After donation, all the blood is divided into its constituent parts by a 3,000-revolution per minute centrifuge according to differential density. The blood is divided into plasma (for burns) and red cells (for massive haemorrhage).

Then comes the most crucial step: examination of the blood. Every bag of blood has 5ml extracted. The centre then uses two different imported reagents to do the examination. In most Western countries, there is only one such process. The examination covers six standards such as, blood type, ALT, HBsAg, HCV, HIV and syphilis and aims to screen-out diseases passed through the blood, such as liver diseases, AIDS or venereal diseases.

Every sample will be called back if any problem is found. Then the plasma is kept at -20 C, red cells at 4 C. Thus, the cost of examining each unit of donated blood (200 to 400ml) is 150 yuan (US$18). Its price in hospital is 290 yuan (US$35). (Star News)