Safe blood products worldwide: successful collaboration of the World Health Organization (WHO) with the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut continues

Langen, 29 July 2009: The World Health Organization has confirmed the designation of the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut in Langen, Germany as 'WHO Collaborating Centre for Quality Assurance of Blood Products and in vitro Diagnostic Devices' for another four years. The institute was incorporated into the group of WHO Collaborating Centres in this field in June 2005. The head of the collaborating centre is Rainer Seitz, who is in charge of the Division 'Haematology and Transfusion Medicine' at the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut.

"We regard the extension of our period as WHO Collaborating Centre as the recognition for our extensive commitment and activities for the WHO in the field of blood product safety. Besides, this challenge is an incentive for us to improve the safety of blood products worldwide", said Johannes Löwer, the President of the institute.

Rainer Seitz explains why the quality assurance of blood products is so important: "A severe shortage of blood products, especially of assured quality, prevails all over the world. For example, the high perinatal mortality rate of women in some developing countries is often due to a shortage of blood reserves. Additionally, the blood available in these countries is often contaminated with viruses which transmit hepatitis or even AIDS.

The professional commitment of the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut is also reflected in a draft resolution on the availability, safety, and quality of blood products submitted by the European Union at the Executive Board of the WHO upon the initiative of Germany. The aim is that the World Health Assembly (WHA) adopts this resolution. The draft resolution appeals to all WHO member states to take action to improve the situation."

The work of the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut (PEI) as WHO Collaborating Centre during the last four years has been manifold: the PEI has initiated and organized standardization projects for biological reference materials and has participated in worldwide collaborative studies. PEI staff members actively participated in numerous expert meetings and working groups of the WHO and, in collaboration with other scientists, have compiled regulatory documents (WHO Guidelines). The institute also seconds PEI experts to the WHO in Geneva regularly.

The PEI training programme for colleagues from regulatory authorities in all regions of the world has proved to be very successful. Thanks to the closer co-operation with the WHO, it has been possible to sponsor some participants through WHO fellowship programmes. The PEI has also been actively represented as WHO Collaborating Centre in the "Blood Regulators Network" (BRN) created by the WHO in 2006 from the very beginning. Rainer Seitz was in charge of this group during the first two years. The BRN is a union of six leading regulatory authorities (worldwide) in the field of the quality assurance of blood products.

Further activities are described in the annual reports on the PEI homepage

Please contact Dr. Susanne Stöcker if you have any questions.

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