Background
The January 2010 Haiti earthquake destroyed the National Blood Transfusion Center and reduced monthly national blood collections by > 46%. Efforts to rapidly scale-up blood collections outside of the earthquake-affected region were investigated.
Study Design and Methods
Blood collection data for 2004–2014 from Haiti’s 10 administrative departments were grouped into four regions: Northern, Central, Port-au-Prince and Southern. Analyses compared regional collection totals during the study period.
Results
Collections in Port-au-Prince accounted for 52% of Haiti’s blood supply in 2009, but fell 96% in February 2010. Haiti subsequently increased blood collections in the North, Central and Southern regions to compensate. By May 2010, national blood collections were only 10·9% lower than in May 2009, with 70% of collections coming from outside of Port-au-Prince. By 2013 national collections (27 478 units) had surpassed 2009 levels by 30%, and Port-au-Prince collections had recovered (from 11 074 units in 2009 to 11 670 units in 2013).
Conclusion
Haiti’s National Blood Safety Program managed a rapid expansion of collections outside of Port-au-Prince following the earthquake. Annual collections exceeded pre-earthquake levels by 2012 and continued rising annually. Increased regional collections provided a greater share of the national blood supply, reducing dependence on Port-au-Prince for collections.
THE DISTINGUISHING FEATURE OF THE COMMUNITY IS ITS institutional system. The establishment of that system and the changes and distortions it has undergone have very much moulded its development. But the Community is also a complex ongoing process: the institutional side alone does not give the full picture. The economic, the financial and the institutional aspects are closely interwoven, and together determine the course of its affairs. I propose to consider the state of the Community today, its current crisis and the outlook for the years ahead from both these angles.
The Conclusions Reached at the meeting of the European Council in Maastricht, on 9 — 10 December 1991, on economic and monetary union and also on political union, form an impressive and complex whole, in which undertakings of major importance coexist with other more timid ones. A detailed analysis would overstep the limits of an article. Moreover, there are still some problems to be cleared up before the final drafts are agreed, even if the principal political decisions have already been taken. The remarks which I would like to submit here will therefore deal more with general questions, and I will limit myself to the more significant provisions of the Maastricht agreements.
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